The novel’s plot truly begins with Billy’s decision to return the captured wolf to Mexico. Why does Billy make this decision, and what does it say about his character? What meaning does his “doomed enterprise” have for him?

How does this novel fit into the genre of the Western or the adventure story? Where does it deviate from those genres or redefine them?

Many times in the novel, Billy stops to listen to the long, didactic story of a stranger, each of which subtly changes his perspective. How are the stories within the novel representative of its larger themes, and why do the stories take such a prominent place in the novel?