Etna Characters

Etna is the first-person narrator, a dog taken from a farm, named Etna by Soojin, trained as a war dog, and used for four years in a sapper and engineer unit clearing roads and detecting mines. After the war Etna leaves the base and travels across fields, a ruined city, and mountains toward the coast, hoping to go home. Etna is told the farm no longer exists and, at the sea, begins to recover and accept the possibility of a new pack.

Arc: Etna moves through the landscape as a scarred survivor, carrying grief for Jason, Fuji, and Semeru and repeatedly asking whether the coast or home is near. After being told there is no home to return to, and after Semeru dies saving him, Etna reaches the sea, is comforted by the bird, and waits to recover with three young dogs pointed out as his future.

• Soojin — the doctor who named Etna, took him from the farm, later reunites with him in the mountains, and sacrifices herself to save him
• Fuji — fellow war dog and pack mate who disappeared in the third year of the war
• Jason — his handler, killed while saving Etna from a mine
• Brian — fellow handler remembered during the search for Fuji
• Semeru — younger dog who befriends him, travels with him, and dies after pulling him from the river
• Hong — human who rescues and bandages him in the city and later travels with him into the mountains
• the old dog — blind way-station dog whose lost family Etna searches for in the field
• the bird — enormous bird who speaks with him at the coast and promises to search for his lost friends
• Achilles — according to the bird, the man who found Etna on the coast

Soojin is a doctor hired by the Americans to handle dogs; she names Etna and Fuji and drives them toward the military. She appears later in the mountains delivering medicine, communicating with dogs, and guiding Etna and Semeru through dangerous territory. She speaks of her mother Faye and of her unusual ability to talk with dogs.

Arc: Soojin initially refuses to take Etna home, saying there is no home to go back to, but later agrees and makes Etna promise to take Semeru home. Wounded in the stomach during an ambush, she throws Semeru and Etna into the river over the waterfall to save them, telling them to forgive her.

• Etna — dog she named, took from the farm, and later tried to save
• Fuji — dog she named and delivered to the military
• Semeru — dog she pets, comforts, and ultimately throws into the river to save
• Hong — working companion with whom she travels through the mountains

Semeru is a younger dog living among the shanties near the ruined city. He first comes out from behind a bridge foundation after Etna is attacked, befriends him, leads him around the city, and explains what Hong does and what the clinic is. He is eager for connection and says he wants to be part of a pack.

Arc: Semeru travels with Etna, Soojin, and Hong into the mountains, learns to detect mines, and is grazed by a bullet during the final ambush. Soojin throws him into the river to save him; he drags Etna out of the water, then collapses and dies on the bank while Etna keeps vigil.

• Etna — fellow dog he befriends, follows, and rescues from the river
• Soojin — human who tells him stories and later throws him into the river to save him
• Hong — human companion who travels with the group into the mountains

Fuji is a dog transported with Etna and named Fuji by Soojin. She is frightened at first but becomes the fiercest dog in the unit, then runs off in the third year of the war and is never seen again. Etna remembers searching for her and later asks other animals whether they have met a dog with her coloring.

Arc: Fuji only appears in memory and in Etna's search, so her present arc is unresolved. Etna wonders whether she left because she wanted to feel that returning to who she once was might be possible.

• Etna — fellow war dog and pack mate who searches for her
• Soojin — woman who named her and delivered her to the military
• Brian — her handler in the unit
• Jason — fellow handler who is part of the search for her

Hong is a man living near the ruined city who crosses a river to drive off three dogs attacking Etna and then bandages Etna's shoulder. He works at the clinic with the doctor, does census work, and tells stories at night to hold off fear. He is restless and afraid to sleep, and insists on going to the mountains to help when the truck arrives.

Arc: Hong secretly gives Etna a shot and stitches while Etna sleeps, then loads supplies onto the truck and leaves for the mountains despite the doctor's pleas. During an ambush he is shot in the shoulder and later shot in the head while firing from behind a tree, falling over the waterfall to his death.

• Etna — dog he rescues, bandages, and later travels with
• Semeru — dog who knows him from the clinic and travels with him
• Soojin — working companion with whom he travels in the mountains
• the doctor — his partner/lover, who begs him not to go back to the mountains
• Achilles — former patient he once sat with by candlelight

The old dog is a nameless, blind dog Etna meets at a ruined way station, pacing a circular trench in the grass. He has cataracts and a disfigured, scarred nose, and he lost much of his sense of smell. He tells Etna how the family who kept the way station ran into the field during a bombing and vanished, and he cannot find them himself.

Arc: He asks Etna to search the field for the man, woman, and child, and he wails when Etna brings him a jawbone and later the bones of only two humans. He thanks Etna, lets Etna listen to his weak heart, gives the shelter to Etna as a place to return to, and says the shelter is a wonderful way station.

• Etna — passing dog he befriends and asks to search for his lost family
• Fuji — says he never encountered her when Etna describes her

Jason is Etna's handler during training and in the sapper and engineer unit. During an accident with anti-tank mines, he grabs Etna, runs, throws Etna away, and is blown apart, leaving fragments of his bones lodged in Etna's skin. In memory he appears sitting at a piano without playing, chewing gum, and walking through a mountain town while searching for Fuji.

Arc: Jason appears only in memory and flashback as Etna's formative human loss. His death while saving Etna is one of the defining wounds Etna carries after the war.

• Etna — his assigned dog, whom he saves by throwing him from the mine blast
• Fuji — dog he searches for while she is missing
• Brian — fellow handler and comrade in the unit

Brian is Fuji's handler, described as a giant with giant laughter. He makes a mistake while defusing anti-tank mines and is killed. Etna remembers him walking through a mountain town with Jason and Etna while they searched for Fuji.

Arc: Brian appears only in memory as part of Etna's wartime past. His fatal mistake and death are among the losses that shape Etna's memories of the war.

• Fuji — his assigned dog
• Jason — fellow handler and comrade in the unit
• Etna — dog who remembers him from the search for Fuji

The bird is an enormous, multicolored bird perched in a tree near the coast who speaks with Etna after he wakes under the tree. She tells him about Achilles, listens to his heart, promises to search for his lost friends, and warns him not to be alone like her. She says no one owns her and that she does not stay with anyone.

Arc: The bird acts as a final guide for Etna, insisting that he arrived and survived and pointing out three young dogs on the beach as his future pack. After listening to his heart and telling him he still has a long time, she flies away.

• Etna — dog she comforts, speaks with, and promises to help
• Achilles — man whose habits she describes and whose cottage is nearby

Achilles is a bearded, shirtless man who appears from the forest at the coast carrying fishing rods and then stands staring out at the water. The bird tells Etna that Achilles found him and is down fishing. Earlier, Hong told a story about a Greek patient named Achilles who walked through fighting and snow, was cared for by Hong and the doctor, and was never seen again after they were posted elsewhere.

Arc: Achilles does not have a clear present arc; he appears primarily at the coast as the man who found Etna and as the subject of Hong's memory. In Hong's story he kept walking because he had no idea what else to do.

• Etna — the man who found him, according to the bird
• Hong — former patient who Hong sat with by candlelight
• the doctor — one of the people who took care of him at the hospital

The doctor is a woman working at the clinic in the ruined city and is Hong's partner/lover. She argues with Hong about going to the mountains, calls him a child and a somnambulist, and tells him the war is over. She falls asleep in his arms as Hong tells stories to keep the night at bay.

Arc: She tries to persuade Hong not to return to the dangerous mountains, but he goes anyway. At the end she appears at a window putting on her coat and waves as the truck leaves.

• Hong — her partner/lover, whom she tries to persuade to stay
• Achilles — former patient she helped care for