This has been bothering me since I read it. On pge 48, Mccarthy makes a point to write a 2 page section on the sherrif and hunting with Bill Parsons and his bird dog, Suzie.
"He let her out of the trunk and I looked at her and I said: I don't believe Suzie's feelin too good. He looked at her and felt her nose and all. Said she looked all right to him. I told him, said: I just don't believe she's real well today."
It seemed that this chapter was particularly significant and it stuck with me throughout the reading as something that seemed important to the author, or why would he make a point to make this its own section? At the same time, I am not entirely sure why this was significant. I looked all over in the book for some reference to this, some symbolizm and I am just not seeing it.
The above section, made me wonder why the dog was in the trunk. It made me think of the couples in the car. I wondered if the dog was dead, but Parsons didn't act as if Suzie were dead and it goes on to say the dog looked fine and they went hunting, but only got one bird. Then it says:
"...Bill says, You know it's funny you noticin' old Suzie was not feelin good today. The way you spotted it. I said: Well Suzie was sick today." What? Why? What's wrong with her? And how did Fate notice but Parsons didn't? At least Parsons stated earlier that she looked fine, but then goes on to say:
"...yes, she was. I said: Suzie was sick yesterday." Huh? Why was she sick yesterday? What's wrong with her? "Suzie has always been sick. Suzie will always be sick. Suzie is a sick dog." All of a sudden I get the creepy feeling we are not necessarily talking about a dog any more but I have no evidence to back this up and you know that pete likes his evidence.
The passage gives me this sense of foreboding that I can't quite shake and it is driving me crazy. I would really like to hear someone else's opinion on this.
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I thought it was interesting to compare old Suzie to Ballard. This section of the book helps to show that Fate was able to see things. He had an idea about what was going on, but it also helps to show him as lazy and unwilling to reach out to help. I think the description of Suzie’s sickness “Suzie has always been sick. Suzie will always be sick” was more a description of Ballard. It made me think that because he was able to see Suzie as being sick, he was able to see Ballard as being sick. He just needed proof.
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