The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Edgar is troubled. Believing his uncle guilty of killing his father is one thing; proving it is much more difficult. As Claude becomes more of a presence on the farm, Edgar struggles to confirm his gut feeling. His obsession is reflected in the growing patch of white grass where the syringe broke.

Meanwhile, his uncle is beginning to involve himself in the operations of the kennel, taking over a large percentage of the paperwork without anyone overseeing the decisions he makes about the farm and the dogs. Edgar is wary of some of the breeding choices his uncle makes, ignorant as he is of the personalities and temperaments of the dogs. Desperate to get Claude to admit his role in Gar’s death, Edgar, reading through his favorite story collection The Jungle Book, concludes he needs to use the dogs to expose Claude’s guilt. After all, he trained the dogs and they would follow his direction. Edgar decides to execute a game of fetch: “He understood that an idea had slowly been dawning on him, parceled out over the course of days” (284).