The Eyes and the Impossible

Eggers uses running throughout the novel as a motif of The Fight for Freedom. The act of running has been intrinsic to Johannes’s identity as a free dog ever since he was a puppy when he and “[his siblings] were taken by humans and […] they became kept dogs—pets—and [he] ran into the woods where [he] remained free and became the Eyes” (15). Now a grown dog, Johannes revels in his speed and his liberty, and the two are intertwined in his mind: “No one has seen me running because when I run human eyes are blind to me. I run like light” (12). Throughout the novel, there are times when Johannes must fight for his freedom. After Johannes escapes Twisty and the Trouble Travelers, running helps him reassert his liberty. He “fears that at any moment the leash would tighten and [he] would be yanked back to that life. Oh! [He] cannot imagine! So [he runs] harder” (66). As the protagonist fights to liberate the bison, running also figures prominently in his vision of their freedom: “Every moment of the day [he pictures] them running free, on the beach and then on plains and through forests” (127).