Sounder: Like Father Like Dog William H. Armstrong’s novel, Sounder, depicts the life of a poor black family and their dog around the turn of the twentieth century. The family of five consists of the mother, father, two sons, one daughter, and last but not least their dog Sounder. The family relies on sharecropping in the summer and hunting in the winter for their food supply. One extremely frigid and windy winter, the hunting is so poor that the father resorts to stealing a ham to keep his family fed. As a result of his decision to steal, the sheriff comes and arrests the father and Sounder is brutally shot. This sets up th