Finding who you are
At the center of Love That Dog is Jack's journey to finding himself and who he truly is. At the end of Love That Dog, Jack has become a radically different young boy from the person he is at the start of the novel. In the end, Jack finds a way to express his thoughts and emotions through poetry and gains confidence in his ability to write and share his work with others. Through poetry, Jack finds who he truly is. He is a kind and empathetic person who has a beautiful soul and a knack for poetry. Ultimately, this journey of self-discovery and self-expression is a significant aspect of Jack's character arc and is an important theme that is explored throughout the book.
Dog
Not only is the dog one of the central characters in Love That Dog, the dog is also one of Creech's novel's most important themes. The death of Jack's dog, Sky, affects him in a profound way. Jack loves Sky more than anything else in the world. He feels that they have an understanding between each other and share a deep, unusual connection. After Sky's death, Jack is able to move past the death of his dog and uses it as inspiration for his poetry and his question in finding a voice.
The power of poetry
Jack, the main character and protagonist of Love That Dog, goes into Miss Stretchberry's class disinterested and unable to find his voice. When Miss Strechberry assigns poetry for her class to read and subsequently write, Jack balks at the request. He doesn't care for poetry and thinks Miss Strechberry's assignment doesn't have any merit. However, once Jack starts to read and ultimately write poetry, he finds his voice. He grows to love poetry and finds his true passion in life. Because of poetry and its power, Jack was transformed into a kid whose outlook on life was grim into a kid who found something he was good at and something which could potentially be his true passion and one of the only ways he is able to express himself.
