Racing In The Rain Theme

Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain often deals with the duality of perception and reality. This is shown the most through the struggle of the protagonist, Denny Swift, as the perception of who he is versus the reality of his character is greatly misrepresented. As this misrepresentation begins to take almost everything from him, his identity is substantially affected. This shift in identity is shown through Stein’s use of setting, point of view, and symbolism.

To start off, setting is the physical, and sometimes spiritual background upon which the narrative takes place. In addition to that, it also encompasses the time, place, and circumstances of the story. Within The Art of Racing in the Rain, the story takes place, for the most part, in modern day Seattle. This is important to know as the legislation within this region and time-frame considerably impact Denny’s life as when his wife, Eve, passes away from brain cancer, he is abruptly thrown into a custody battle over his beloved daughter, Zoё. If only to make matters worse, Denny is then accused of sexually assaulting a minor when a fifteen year old girl named Annika charges him for a crime that he didn’t commit. As opposed to being the professional racecar driver that he dreamed of, Denny is suddenly a potential sex offender and since “rapists don’t get custody of their little girls”, his fight for Zoё is made even more complicated. To add fuel to the fire, Denny is also legally unable to leave the state due to the charge, meaning that he can’t tour and race professionally until he proves his innocence. As such, the two things that mean the most to Denny are stripped away as a result of the false impression that the world holds against him. Moreover, Stein also uses point of view to portray the change in Denny’s individuality as a result of what others perceive him as. Point of view is the vantage point from which the story is told. In this case, the story is told through …show more content…
Throughout the novel, Enzo makes reference to a dancing zebra, whom he believes to be a demonic force that possesses people (and stuffed animals) to do unexplainable evils. This isn’t the case however, as Enzo comes to learn that the zebra is actually the “the worst part of us when we are face-to-face with our worst times”. As he reaches this revelation, Denny’s financial situation has reached rock bottom levels of debt with all of the child support and other legal fees brought on by inaccurate depictions of who he is. He’s been beaten to resignation, and having lost hope of ever winning the cases, is prepared to sign his daughter away with a settlement. Seeing as this onslaught of fees and poverty has brought out the worst in Denny, Enzo states that it isn’t Denny who was signing, but his worst self at his worst time - the zebra, as the usual Denny “would never give up his daughter for a few weeks of summer vacation and an exemption from child support payments!”.

To summarize, the protagonist of Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, Denny Swift, is met with a constant struggle of the reality of his character and what others perceive him as. As shown through Stein’s usage of setting, point of view, and symbolism, this heightened misinterpretation of his person brings out the worst in him as he is forced into