“The jig is up!” These are the words that come to my mind if
I was asked to describe the last section of Shiloh
in one sentence. Between the various discoveries of Marty’s secret and the
attack on Shiloh, the climactic crisis of the book has arrived, so it’s
pertinent that I’ll be blogging in part as a Travel Tracer today, as the pace
of events picks up a bit in this section. By this point in the book, everyone
in the family plus Doc Murphy knows about Shiloh. Ma found out because Marty
snuck food out that he doesn’t usually eat, Dad found out because the
neighbor’s German shepherd hopped the fence of Shiloh’s pen and started
attacking him, and Doc Murphy found out because that’s where Dad and Marty take
Shiloh to be patched up—the only person who hasn’t found out yet, it seems, is
Judd, and that’s about to change.
Chapter 11 Travel:
1. Marty’s inside on his couch bed, trying to sleep through
his worry about Shiloh.
2. When he wakes up in the morning, Marty goes outside to
attempt to be by himself, but is joined by his younger sister, Dara Lynn.
3. Marty starts to go up the hill to try to clean up
Shiloh’s pen when he hears David Howard arrive. David joins Marty, and they go
to the meadow the long way to fly David’s new kite.
4. Marty tries to bring David back to the house without
seeing Shiloh’s pen, but it doesn’t work—David finds the pen, so Marty has to
tell him what happened while the boys clean up the pen before they go back to
the house.
5. Back at the house, Doc Murphy pulls up in his car around
3:30 with Shiloh, who is on the mend.
Chapter 12 Travel:
1. Everyone’s at home, including Shiloh, and the family is
just as taken with him as Marty.
2. Everyone stays close to home for a few days, except for
Dad, who works as a mail carrier. Marty carries Shiloh from his box in the
house outside to do his business, then brings him right back in.
3. After a few days, Marty walks to the grocery store in
Friendly to see if there are any odd jobs he can do to earn money to buy Shiloh
from Judd. Finding nothing, Marty walks home.
4. Back at the house, just as the family is about to have their
dessert, Judd Travers raps on the door and issues the following ultimatum:
Shiloh has to be returned to him by Sunday.
Chapter 13 Travel:
1. Marty walks to David’s house in Friendly on Friday to try
to figure out how to keep Shiloh, and walks back home without any new ideas.
2. Early on Sunday morning, Marty walks to Judd’s place,
determined to tell Judd that he’s not giving Shiloh back.
3. Marty stops in the woods halfway to Judd’s place and
witnesses Judd shooting a doe out of season in a meadow.
Chapter 14 Travel:
1. Marty steps out of the woods into the meadow and
confronts Judd, stating that he won’t tell the game warden about the deer if
Judd lets him keep Shiloh.
2. Judd agrees, as long as Marty will do 20 hours’ worth of
odd jobs for Judd at $2 per hour to pay for Shiloh, starting with helping him
to drag the deer back to his trailer. They set off.
3. Marty heads home.
Chapter 15 Travel:
1. Every weekday for two weeks, Marty walks to Judd’s
trailer and back home to work off his debt for Shiloh.
I can tell that I have not read youth or young adult fiction
for quite some time, because my adult brain was not expecting everything to
turn out as well as it did in the end. As Literary Luminary, I want to look at
the section in which Marty sees Judd shoot the doe, as well as the subsequent
confrontation. Naylor does an excellent job of building up the suspense in
these scenes so that when the conflict between Marty and Judd comes to a head,
we’re just as filled with tension as they are, waiting to see what’s going to
happen. Naylor’s description of Marty watching the rabbit (p. 118) has the
effect of getting her audience to be still with Marty. She purposefully writes
a scene designed to quiet our minds so that the impact of what comes next—the
two rifle shots that bring down the deer and the sight of Judd stepping into
the meadow to claim his prize—hits us hard. All this time, we’ve been agonizing
with Marty about how to find a way to keep Shiloh, and all of a sudden, this
opportunity gets dropped into his lap.
This decision Marty must make begs an interesting question
that I’ll pose as Director: If faced with the choice of saving one animal that
you care deeply about, or saving many that you’ve never met and will probably
rarely encounter, what would you do? What is the “right” thing to do in this
scenario? Should Marty look the other way on Judd killing a deer out of season
so he can save Shiloh, even though the law states that Judd should be fined
$200? Or, should Marty turn Judd in, to save the deer?
Throughout the scene, Naylor shares Marty’s thought process
with us, and this issue of “right” and “wrong” is something he’s been tangling
with throughout the novel. Marty’s kept Shiloh away from Judd, which is
technically wrong according to the laws of property ownership, but Marty feels
it’s the right thing to do because Judd abuses his dogs. We see in Chapter 6
that Marty tries to figure out the ethics of the situation by asking Jesus, “
‘…which you want me to do? Be one hundred percent honest and carry that dog
back to Judd so that one of your creatures can be kicked and starved all over
again, or keep him here and fatten him up to glorify your creation?’ ” (p. 57).
As he asks the question, Marty realizes that if Jesus is as wonderful as they
say he is, the question answers itself: a man as loving as Jesus wouldn’t want
a dog like Shiloh to be sent back to an owner like Judd (p. 57). Marty’s
bothered by the lies he’s telling to cover up keeping Shiloh, but he justifies
them as the lesser of two evils until he figures out a way to buy Shiloh from
Judd.
Therefore, by the time that we get to the scene in Chapter
14 in which Marty confronts Judd about the doe, then, we know that Marty is
willing to do what it takes to protect Shiloh, and he now has leverage over
Judd Travers. Marty knows that this could be considered blackmail if Judd
accepts the deal. But, Judd being Judd, he won’t let Shiloh go just for that—he
wants to sell Shiloh for $40, because he paid $35 and wants to make a profit.
Marty doesn’t have the money, but he agrees to work for Judd to pay the $40,
and makes Judd put the deal in writing, including Shiloh’s name so there’s no
mistaking which dog Marty gets to keep. Throughout this scene, Naylor keeps the
suspense level high—we have no idea whether or not Judd will shoot Marty (even
Marty comments on this on page 127, as he’s walking home after striking the
deal with Judd), and we don’t know whether Marty will win, but we keep rooting
for him. Marty’s bravery in this scene comes directly from the love he has for
Shiloh and the power he feels from knowing that Judd is in a tight spot.
I’ll end with some parting questions as Director: How do you
feel, knowing that Marty has to help Judd hide his illegally shot deer as his
first odd job to pay for Shiloh? Is Shiloh worth all of that time and trouble?
What do you think about how Judd’s behavior towards Marty changes over the two
weeks that Marty works for him? Do you think Judd will treat his dogs better
after the conversations he has with Marty? What do you think about Judd giving
Marty a dog collar for Shiloh? Do you think Judd and Marty will continue to get
along better with each other? Why or why not? Do you feel satisfied with how
the book ends?
I like your questions as the director
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