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36 pages 1 hour read

Mary Hood

How Far She Went

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1984

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Story 5: “How Far She Went”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 5 Summary

The protagonist of the title story is an unnamed female referred to as the granny. She is raising her granddaughter—the daughter of her deceased daughter. The granny remembers how badly she rejected her own daughter at birth—“Tie her to a fence and give her a bale of hay” (70)—and believes that the abandonment and isolation she inflicted on her daughter are why she must suffer the insolence of her granddaughter.

They are quarrelling at the start of the story and remain at odds throughout. At the news that the girl is being abandoned by her father, the girl resents her grandmother even more and blames her for the fact that she is stuck with her. The fight ends with the girl running off—a foreshadowing of the climactic conclusion: “It didn’t matter this time, how far she went” (69).

The granny’s only true companion is her little dog—loyal, playful, loving, and the last bastion of innocence. He follows her playfully as she tends to her daughter’s grave at the church cemetery. While they are there, two bikers ride up, and the girl is riding with one of them. The granny demands the bikers leave the girl with her, but when the granny drives home, the bikers pursue the two—with intent to kill.

They are forced to abandon their car and hide in a lake under a dock. The dog is barking, and the granny realizes that she has no choice but to hold him under the water and drown him. When the bikers finally leave, the woman drops to her knees with the dog in her arms, saying, “It was him or you [...] I’m not going to rub your face in it [...] around here, we bear our own burdens” (77). 

Story 5 Analysis

The title story of the collection marks the climax of the theme of resignation to suffering as not only a fact of life, but a way of life. “How far” the granny goes is to kill her beloved companion dog, but how far the girl goes is the central issue: She brings the bikers, causes the threat to their lives, and in doing so, is the reason the dog dies.

The granny does not blame the granddaughter for bringing about the murder of an innocent dog because she believes she killed the possibility of genuine goodness by rejecting her daughter. She believes the granddaughter’s anger is her punishment and even thinks of her and the bikers as one: “They were the enemy, all of them” (71). In this sense, the granny gave up any chance at lasting peace when she abandoned her daughter: Her daughter is now dead, her granddaughter (a typically loving and loveable archetype) is anger incarnate, and the granny’s one instance of companionship and peace is now dead at her own hands. The granny’s resignation is akin to the concept of karma, whereby one suffers or thrives based on one’s past deeds. 

The killing of the dog is the climax not only of this story but of the collection itself. In the stories that precede, the conditions of loss, suffering, and loneliness are tolerated, endured, and mitigated—even disguised beneath a façade of Southern charm. In the stories that follow, that same suffering is confronted by a refusal to accept it—and by the determination that there is no choice but to reject it at all cost.

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