The Dog Stars

At many points in the novel, Hig observes the stars, as his thoughts grow poetic. At other times, when Hig forgets the names of constellations, he renames them. This signifies the construction of a new relationship between Hig and the world he now lives in, creating a sense of empowerment in an otherwise daunting and dehumanizing post-collapse world.

In Chapter 1, Hig says:

I once had a book on the stars but now I don’t. My memory serves but not stellar ha. So I made up constellations. I made a Bear and Goat but maybe not where they are supposed to be, I made some animals that once were, the ones I know about. I made one for Melissa, her whole self standing there kind of smiling and tall and looking down on me in the winter nights (11).

It’s passages like this that allow Hig to create, or recreate, the world around him, and provide agency to humans’ ability to dictate to the natural world, as opposed to vice versa. As the novel progresses, numerous times Hig’s observations of the stars create tender moments of beauty, providing narrative relief from the devastation. There are moments when Hig compares stars to a stream, and compares himself to a fish nosing through a net in that stream, suggesting Hig, and humanity at large, is but a small fish compared to the vast expanse of the stream of stars and sky above.