# V explained — Roughing It

> Chapter companion for Roughing It by Mark Twain.

## What happens

The narrator describes the beauty and freedom of the overland journey, then provides a detailed, humorous, and exaggerated portrait of the coyote, its appearance, behavior, and survival in the desert, including a comedic chase between a dog and a coyote.

## Themes in this chapter

### Humor and Exaggeration

The entire description of the coyote and the dog chase is a comic exaggeration, highlighting the absurdity of the dog's futile pursuit.

### Frontier Myth vs. Reality

The coyote is portrayed as a symbol of the harsh, unromantic reality of the desert, contrasting with any idealized notions of the frontier.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Describes the landscape and the coyote from personal experience.

## Key lines

> The coyote is a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry. He is always poor, out of luck and friendless.

The coyote embodies constant need and deprivation, perpetually hungry, unlucky, and without companions.

_Highlights the narrator's personification of the coyote as a symbol of destitution._

> And then, in the instant that a wild new hope is lighting up his face, the coyote turns and smiles blandly upon him once more, and with a something about it which seems to say: 'Well, I shall have to tear myself away from you, bub—business is business, and it will not do for me to be fooling along this way all day'—and forthwith there is a rushing sound, and the sudden splitting of a long crack through the atmosphere, and behold that dog is solitary and alone in the midst of a vast solitude!

Just as the dog feels a surge of hope, the coyote casually smiles, as if to say it has more important things to do, then instantly vanishes, leaving the dog utterly alone in the empty landscape.

_Illustrates the coyote's cunning and the comedic deflation of the dog's expectations._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/v
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/roughing_it_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters