46 pages • 1 hour read
Grace LinThe Year of the Dog
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Red Eggs”
Melody and Pacy quickly become best friends. One day, Melody comes over to help make red eggs, a symbol of good luck, so that Pacy’s family can bring them to her newborn cousin, Albert. As the girls dye the eggs by dipping red envelopes in water, Pacy wishes that she could do this as a job because she enjoys it. When Lissy tells them that Pacy did not have a Red Egg party because she was sick as a baby, Ki-Ki claims it was because she had “ammonia.” Confused, Melody and Pacy look at the cleaners in the house, and seeing one labelled ammonia, they assume that Pacy is allergic to it. When Lissy laughs and threatens to spray Pacy with it, Pacy’s mom interjects, clarifying that Pacy had pneumonia as a baby, not ammonia.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Albert’s Party”
When Melody goes home, Pacy and her family prepare for the long trip to visit Albert. They get dressed in formal Chinese clothes and pack the car. When the family arrives after dark, all their relatives are waiting for them and ask, “Ja-ba bei?” (40). This greeting, which inquires if they have eaten, is meant literally and also as a welcome.
Inside the house, there are red eggs everywhere, along with red posters that display Albert’s name. Albert sleeps in a crib, and everyone tucks red envelopes full of money beneath him. There is a plethora of food on the table, and some food is only for the women to eat. When other relatives repeat the greeting, Pacy frustratedly claims that they are already eating. Everyone laughs because the question is “a Taiwanese way of just saying, ‘How are you doing?’” (42).
Chapter 11 Summary: “Tiger Chasing Pig”
Because so many people are staying at Albert’s house, the children sleep on the dining room floor, and Pacy is beneath the table. When she awakes the next morning, she sees feet and hits her head on the table. Emerging to eat breakfast, she complains that her neck hurts. Her grandmother offers a solution. She paints the symbol for a tiger on one side of Pacy’s neck and the symbol for a pig on the other, claiming that the tiger will run after the pig and will help to soothe her pain. As Pacy worries about the paint, she realizes that the pain is gone.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Luck”
A few days later, the family drives home, and even though the kids have missed three days of school, not much has changed. Melody tells Pacy that their classmate, Teddy Jackson, has a crush on someone. Both girls like Teddy and hope that he feels the same way about one of them. They keep a notebook tracking Teddy’s actions, and over the weekend, they determine that Teddy prefers Pacy. Excited, she speculates that she and Teddy could work on the science fair project together, but this upsets Melody, who reminds Pacy that the two girls have already planned to do the project as a team. As a result, Pacy worries that if Teddy likes her, it will cause problems between her and Melody. She considers not going out with Teddy. The next day, when they learn that Teddy and Sophia are a couple, both girls are relieved.
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Book Contest”
At school, Pacy enjoys art and library the most out of all her classes. One day, the library teacher, Ms. McCurdy, visits to talk about a joint project between the classes. The students will write and illustrate their own books for a national contest, and the winning book will be published. Even though the teachers will guide them, the students must generate their own ideas for stories.
Despite hearing other students’ proposals and getting suggestions from her family, Pacy has no ideas worthy of winning the contest. Her parents inform her that consistent hard work and diligent practice are required to make a book. Additionally, her mother recalls the time when her own mother created a piano out of paper for her. Pacy’s grandmother found a piano teacher for Pacy’s mother, but her mother had to walk a great distance every day after school to practice there. Despite loving the teacher’s beautiful house, Pacy’s mother hated the walk and begged to stay home. Grandmother agreed that she did not have to go every day, but only if she still practiced, so the elder woman drew a piano for the girl to practice on every day. Eventually, Pacy’s mom played in a concert so beautifully that her mother cried. Hearing this, Pacy confirms that her parents will cry if she wins the national book contest.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Trying to Discover”
Pacy and Melody team up for the science fair project, which Pacy hopes will help her to discover her talent and find herself. Pacy’s mom encourages them to explore an unanswered question. After she tells them about a scientist who discovered that different kinds of music affected plant growth, the girls decide to experiment with how plant growth is impacted by different liquids: orange juice, milk, ginger ale, and water. Only one plant thrives—the one that is nourished with soda. After making this discovery, they create posters with charts and write a four-page report to accompany the display.
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Science Fair”
On Saturday at the science fair, the girls set up their display, including the plants, which do not look healthy. Excited at the prospect of a blue ribbon because both girls were born in the Year of the Tiger, which is compatible with the Year of the Dog, they are taken aback when Becky states that she, too, was born in the Year of the Tiger, so she could win. Pacy and Melody begin to doubt their luck.
At the start of the fair, an announcement is made that a NASA scientist will be the guest judge. When he visits their table and reads their report, he asks if the plants were in a controlled environment. Pacy shares that the water was the control. However, he clarifies that a controlled environment is one in which the plants get the same amount of liquid and the same amount of sunlight. When the girls admit that they did not measure those things, the scientist deems their project flawed. Dejected, Pacy decides that she lacks talent in science. Instead of making a great discovery, Pacy and Melody watch Charlotte and Becky win first prize.
Chapters 9-15 Analysis
In this section of the novel, Lin further develops the significance of traditional Chinese symbolism, particularly the meaning of the color red. When the family celebrates the birth of Pacy’s cousin Albert by dyeing eggs red, this gesture is intended as a symbol of luck, good fortune, and prosperity, and Pacy observes Albert’s “round, fat face with red cheeks” and concludes that he “looked like a red egg” (41). However, the symbolism of the color red goes even deeper, for she reflects:
But [Albert’s appearance] could have been because he was sleeping on all those red envelopes. Relatives kept coming by and slipping those envelopes stuffed with money into the crib. It reminded me that I still had to think about how I was going to get rich. Lucky Albert! He was already rich (41).
The emphasis on red, from the eggs to the envelopes stuffed into Albert’s crib, highlights its connection with the concept of prosperity. As with the hong bao that the girls receive on Chinese New Year, Albert’s red envelopes contain money, literally providing him with riches and giving him hope for a full and prosperous life.
Another symbol that emerges in these chapters is found in the associated artwork, for the frequent illustrations represent the protagonist’s focus on finding creative solutions. Even as Pacy reveals that art class is one of her favorites, it also becomes clear that she uses painting and drawing as methods to overcome her problems. For example, when Pacy’s neck hurts from sleeping on the floor, her grandmother offers to help by painting on Pacy’s skin and stating, “Leave and tiger will chase pig […] Running will help neck” (45). The idea behind this gesture is that when Pacy runs or moves, the symbols themselves will move, figuratively massaging her neck, and the girl is surprised to discover that her neck does feel better. Additionally, Pacy’s mother tells a story of taking piano lessons in Taiwan and traveling a great distance each day just to practice. Because of this, her mother drew piano keys on paper for Pacy’s mother to use on the days she could not get to her teacher’s house. Although the drawing was not an actual instrument, the paper piano helped Pacy’s mother to improve. Thus, the narrative presents painting and drawing as innovative solutions to commonplace problems.
Through the presence and support of her family, Pacy learns more about herself and her culture, highlighting The Impact of Stories on Identity. For example, when her family arrives in New Jersey, other relatives repeatedly ask Pacy, “Ja-ba, bei?” (40), which literally inquires whether she has eaten. Pacy becomes confused when someone asks this while she is eating, and the protagonist learns that the question is a greeting that implicitly asks after someone’s well-being. As Pacy learns the implicit, unspoken meaning of this traditional phrase, she realizes that food is deeply important in Taiwanese culture because it is a way of checking on how someone is doing. As Pacy celebrates at Albert’s party, she learns more about her family’s language and comes to understand that key words and phrases often reflect what is most important in Taiwanese culture. Likewise, the story that Pacy’s mother tells about playing piano on paper emphasizes the importance of persevering even in the face of difficulty. As her father says, “Everything takes time and effort” (54). This story and lesson help Pacy to better understand who she is and give her important advice for achieving her goal of discovering her talent and her future prospects. As a result, this story shapes Pacy’s identity and illuminates the theme of Community Influence on Personal Goals.
As the story unfolds, Pacy learns more about her culture and herself, growing and maturing along the way. To emphasize these shifts, Lin makes it a point to illustrate moments of Pacy’s more childish perceptions, along with moments of growth and learning. For example, Pacy shows her naiveté when she believes that she is allergic to ammonia because she was sick as a child, and she runs from the spray bottle that Lissy holds, only realizing her mistake when her mother clarifies that Pacy had pneumonia, not ammonia. On a larger scale, Pacy begins to learn the true value of friendship. When she and Melody have a crush on the same boy, Pacy realizes just how precious her friendship with Melody really is. When Pacy still believes that Teddy Jackson likes her, she imagines working with him on the science fair project, but when she sees that this idea upsets Melody, Pacy begins to wonder if “maybe [she] shouldn’t go out with Teddy” (51). Later, when they hear that Teddy likes another girl, Melody and Pacy smile at each other in sheer relief that Teddy will not come between their friendship. Despite having a crush on Teddy, Pacy realizes that the relationship she has cultivated with Melody is more important. Her smile reflects this understanding, marking her growing maturity.
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