49 pages • 1 hour read
Christopher McDougallRunning with Sherman
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Restorative Power of Connecting with Animals
Underscoring all else in Running with Sherman is an exploration of the connection that humans form with animals. The task of building a team comprised of humans and animals that will allow Sherman to run the World Championship in Fairplay is the overarching plot of the narrative, but the emotional core of Running with Sherman is the communion that Christopher McDougall forms with Sherman, enabling them to successfully complete the race. The recognition of this vital aspect to their success—the connection they form—allows McDougall to examine a wide variety of human-animal connections, especially the restorative power of human and animal relationships.
McDougall’s character arc is charted through the development of his ability to read Sherman’s behaviors and to finally share his desire with the donkey. In order to do this, he must increasingly recognize Sherman in terms of being his equal, rather than acting as a domineering owner against an animal’s obstinate silence. This act, of bringing oneself to an equal state with another, is the basis of true connection. The primary method of achieving this that McDougall follows is by trying to understand what is motivating Sherman’s behavior based on his perception of Sherman’s experience, an approach suggested by the animal behaviorist Temple Grandin (See: Background). To assist him with this, McDougall finds a stable of mentors, in particular Tanya and Karin, each of whom solves Sherman’s obstinacy by evaluating his perspective based on the abuse in his past. This “emotional training” culminates during the race, when McDougall and Sherman successfully complete their goal.
Throughout, McDougall also stresses the ways in which animals are therapeutic for humans. This is illustrated in the relationship between Sherman and Zeke. Zeke’s tenuous grasp on his will to live and his struggle with depression have left him in a forlorn state, but after partnering with Sherman, Zeke regains a sense of purpose. This connection proves so strong that, despite breaking his foot, Zeke attends the Fairplay race and spends hours with Sherman in the field. Similarly, McDougall also discusses equine therapy and its positive effects for Harrison, Hal Walter’s son who is on the autism spectrum (201). He also mentions the healing effects of connecting with animals for those who suffer from PTSD, the elderly, prisoners, those who suffer from anxiety and depression, and survivors of sexual abuse.
However, rather than presenting a one-sided relationship with animals, with animals simply acting as calming presences for humans, McDougall suggests a symbiotic relationship in his training with Sherman. Though he offers few other clarifying details, McDougall claims training with Sherman “fixed” him (324), and certainly Sherman’s successful run indicates that he is rehabilitated from his traumatized state at the beginning of the book. This mutual fixing comes as McDougall learns to embrace his Tao and hold his desire as equal to the donkey’s, creating a shared plane of existence. This, finally, is McDougall’s suggestion of a mode of human-animal connection that transcends single-sided use: If humans are able to recharacterize their relationships with animals, both will reap the perpetual benefits.
The Role of Animals in Modern Society
The wider thematic concern that emerges through Running with Sherman is the shifting nature of the role that animals play in human society. The relationship that humans have with animals has long been characterized by a symbiosis, in which each member draws benefits from mutually working together. McDougall, as a farmer, is primed to offer this connection, as he is still part of these old networks between humans and animals. The nature of this relationship continued for thousands of years of human and animal domestication, and has only recently faced widespread disruption. This disruption, McDougall argues, has had deleterious effects on both humans and animals as we move further away from the connections that sustain us both.
Animals, and the need to form a connection with them, have been with human beings since our primordial beginnings. McDougall, quoting the works of animal behaviorist Carl Safina, suggests that our knowledge of prey animals was necessary to our survival, but more important was the ability to read the behaviors of the wolf packs that surrounded us. The integration of humans and wolves— who became hunting companions as they were domesticated into dogs—was characterized by the symbiotic relationship between both. The superior senses of dogs provided humans with security, long-range tracking ability, and an attack force that helped them achieve dominance over the other hominid species and, eventually, to establish themselves as agriculturalists.
From this point on, humanity forged relationships with several animals such as horses, bovines, harks, ferrets, wildcats, and reindeer, allowing human society to broaden and spread across the world. Animals became vital aspects of the survival of human societies, and remained an integral part of human lives for thousands of years. The Industrial Revolution, however, forever sundered humanity’s relationship with animals, turning our symbiotic companions into “an intruder who craps on our sidewalks, barks all night, and has to be confined to cages in the back bedroom” (62).
McDougall credits naturalist E. O. Wilson with diagnosing the effect of this split after 300,000 years of cohabitation. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis, which literally means “love of living things” (63), suggests that because humans and animals evolved together, we instinctually crave their presences and find them unconsciously settling. However, McDougall’s use of Wilson and Safina’s theories in Running with Sherman is not merely diagnostic. He uses them as a wider contextualization for his decision to train Sherman to run the World Championship in Fairplay. In doing so, McDougall is enacting a solution to the diminished relationship between animals and humans, advocating for a reconnection with animals and nature.
Following Tanya’s advice to give Sherman “a purpose” (16), McDougall focuses on burro racing, a competition that encapsulates the former symbiotic relationship of animals and which is a potential solution to our wounded biophilia. Burro racing originated in prospecting, a former relationship characterized by work and industry. Now, the races are built on the bond of a shared goal between humans and animals. The entire book makes a case for burro racing as the pinnacle of the human-animal relationship, as racing with a burro makes the racer dependent on an animal they must somehow forge a relationship with. For McDougall, such active nourishment of the human-animal connection is one of the ways to correct the displaced role of animals in modern society.
The Therapeutic Aspect of Sport
Content Warning: This section discusses death by suicide.
A prominent feature of McDougall’s approach to sport and athletic activity in Running with Sherman is its capacity to act as a vehicle for healing. Several of the case studies he includes feature an aspect of recuperation, or battling back from adversity, with sport being the catalyst for recovery. McDougall also touches on the dark side of sudden withdrawal from athletic activities. These two facets of sport—its therapeutic benefits and the disastrous effects of halting regular exercise—become prominent themes in Running with Sherman.
McDougall brings up the science that finds that physical activity increases endorphins and hormones, boosting mental health and activating the body’s healing capacity. Though this natural effect comes with a caveat: Regular exercise encourages the body to rely on certain levels of endorphins. This leads to a precipitous decline in athletes when they do not receive the levels they are accustomed to, sometimes leading to depression and suicide. McDougall offers Rob Pedretti, who came to prominence in the world of burro racing, as an example of the worst-case scenario of this sudden chemical imbalance. Pedretti, who had been athletic all of his life, faced a change in circumstances that prevented him from competing any longer. Soon after, he died by suicide.
McDougall first discusses “movement-as-medicine” (58) through his method of healing Sherman. As Sherman trains for the race, he gradually becomes mentally and physically stronger, helping him to recuperate from the abuse he once endured. To illustrate this therapeutic effect in a wider sense, however, McDougall turns to Harrison Walter, Hal Walter’s neurodiverse son. When Harrison was first diagnosed with autism, Hal and his wife turned to Curtis Imrie, who used burro racing to help him interact with the rest of the world. This, in turn, encourages Harrison to run varsity track in high school, which soon brings other neurodiverse students into the sport. This dramatic shift allows the once self-isolated boy to develop “community, goals, friendships, a social life” (332).
McDougall’s primary representative of this affliction is Zeke, who is recovering from a suicide attempt after a similar dopamine drop-off, though Zeke also stands as an example of the positive aspects of sport as well. Sport is Zeke’s program for healing, primarily through training with Sherman. He soon also supplements it with Parkour training and a self-imposed program of cold-shock baths inspired by the therapeutic theories of Wim Hof (253). Through these altered training regimens, Zeke is able to bounce back from his depression. Even after getting sidelined by a broken foot, he still attends the race and takes an enthusiastic interest in Sherman’s performance. By the end of the memoir, McDougall reports that Zeke is back at university and thriving, illustrating once again the positive, healing effects of regular athleticism.
