The forgotten genocide
Part of the importance in Balakian's personal and academic account of the Armenian Genocide stems from the fact that in many parts of the world, the genocide went largely ignored. The genocide might have happened a long time ago, but as an insightful lesson into history, Balakian urges the reader to sympathize with those who died and the millions whose lives were radically altered because of hatred and violence. This makes Balakian's family story into an allegory for what it means to remember a tragic moment in human history and what the personal impact might be for events that happened to other people at other times.
The dog
The title bears a promise for symbolism, and the story makes good on that. The Black Dog of Fate is a symbolic reminder of the severity of death, but even though the dead dog is an omen, Balakian's grandmother expresses a wonderful ambiguity with respect to the omen. Is it good or bad? It is neither a sign for good or bad—which is strange considering the natural aversion to death which is typically associated with death symbols—but rather she takes it as a symbol of fate for change. That means that death is associated with new life.
Growing and destiny
As Balakian grows up, he encounters a constant motif which points him toward his inevitable destiny as an author and as an academic instructor. This happened naturally with natural symbolism, because as he learned the brilliant stories of his heritage, he falls in love gradually with narrative and literature. In other words, one might conceivably say that his destiny is to capture the difficult and ineffable qualities of death and the human experience. The Armenian Genocide is certainly a focus in this broader interest.
History and repetition
How fast can history repeat itself? Well, Balakian argues that it can happen very quickly when public opinion becomes inflamed. The likelihood of genocidal hatred is something that can never be ignored. That is Balakian's interpretation of history—and a good one. He makes a compelling case that it was the same hatred that made the Ottomans and Turks reject and persecute the ethnic Armenians in Turkey that spread into Europe. He says that without the influence of racism against Armenians and Jews, the likelihood of public hatred of ethnic Jews might not have been as forceful, historically speaking.
