Meaning of the end? spoiler
What was the meaning of the scene at the end when the dog decided to attack the old white guy instead of the black guy?
share[deleted]
Which is a lie. The dog in the novel only attacked white people because he was specifically retrained to do so. The point is that he was just trying to do what the people training him wanted--he assumes that there's a reason for their hatred of these other slightly different people, and he's just trying to be a good dog. He finally realizes that both whites and blacks have deceived him, and the understanding that humankind as a whole is unworthy of his trust and loyalty destroys him.
Honestly, name one instance of a white person who started out being racist against blacks, and ended up being racist against other whites. It never happens. Yes, it's very hard to get over racist feelings, and we can argue whether people ever completely do, but you don't see Klan members or Aryan Nation people just suddenly decide that black people are okay but white people totally suck. You also don't see Nation of Islam people decide that white people are okay but black people are The Devil. Racism takes many forms, it can certainly change shape over the course of time, but it doesn't do a complete 180 like that. Political ideology, sometimes. Religion, maybe. Racial animus, no.
The ending makes no sense, and there's no point trying to explain it. If the dog had attacked the old white racist who abused him as a puppy, that would have made some sense. He clearly doesn't want to attack McNichol's character, so he's not attacking white people in general. Is he attacking the Burl Ives character because he looks like his former owner? Makes no sense, because dogs go more by smell and sound, and they don't look that much alike anyway.
It's a bad ending--Fuller and Hanson made too many wrong choices in rewriting Gary's story, and they ended up writing themselves into a corner. Some good visuals, but otherwise an incoherently told story.