Importance of Howling (Wailing, Caterwauling)

Jacob hears and feels echoes of his own pain in the crying out of a pet goat being taken to slaughter (the term used in reference to the goat is "caterwauling"). Variations on the experience of howling in pain appear throughout the novel, all of them evoking different sorts of pain experienced by Jacob - the pain of loneliness, the pain of grief, the pain of frustration.