Hamet Allegory
The novel is an allegory of William Shakespeare's Hamlet as it re-tells the story of a young man whose father is killed, after which his uncle steps in to assume this life as his own; the young man runs away but returns to find that his position at home has been usurped by his uncle and that he must reveal his uncle as his father's murderer. The plot is allegorical although the names and places in the story have been changed; it is still possible to see the Shakespearean narrative, although set in Denmark, woven through Wroblewski's novel, set in Wisconsin.
Syringe Symbol
When Edgar finds a syringe in the barn, it is a symbol of his uncle's guilt and his identity as Gar's murderer; the syringe is exactly like the ones that he uses on the dogs and nobody else could have put it there but him.
Cloud of Smoke Symbol
As the barn burns, Claude tries to escape, but is prevented from doing so by thick clouds of acrid smoke that the outlined ghostly form of Gar seems to have created there. This is a symbol that Gar is angry that Claude has not been made to pay for his murder and also a symbol that he is taking justice into his own hands from beyond the grave.
Dog Lovers Are Good People Motif
It seems that the characters in the novel that are good people are also dog lovers. This is a constant motif and starts with Gar's father, who was a man who loved dogs and became a breeder because of this. Gar himself is also passionate about his dogs, and Edgar has inherited his ability and his affinity for them. Claude, on the other hand, is not nearly so good with the dogs and they, in turn, are far more suspicious of him than they are of any other human character in the novel.
Even when Edgar runs away, the man he encounters, Henry Lamb, is a passionate dog lover. He becomes an ally of Edgar, offering to drive him to Canada, and also offering to take in two of Edgar's dogs.
Envy Motif
Throughout the novel the motif of envy seems to appear. The main cause of this envy is fraternal in that Claude seems to be jealous of everything that Gar has, and this seems to have been the case since childhood. He envies him his position in the family business, his success as a family man and his popularity. He also envies him his wife and this is the first relationship that Claude moves in on when he moves into the home.
He is also very envious of Trudy's love for Edgar and does his best to come between mother and son. Although successful to start with , his scheming has a limited capability and he soon realizes that Trudy will help Edgar in preference to himself, thereby escalating his jealousy even more.
