In Wilson Rawls’ Where the Red Fern Grows, Billy reflects on his childhood living in the Ozark Mountains during the 1920s. At age ten, Billy becomes infected with a severe case of “puppy love” and implores his parents for two coonhounds. Although his parents are unable to buy them, Billy works hard for the money and after two years, he has enough to get his dogs. Billy names them Old Dan and Little Ann and as they continue to hunt together; they confront many challenges, including natural hardships and the ultimate loss, death. Billy matures as he learns to accept suffering and to make sacrifices. The suffering Billy endures from Rubin’s death teaches him that every action has a resulting consequence. Rubin and Rainie Pritchard have a reputation for being cruel and unfair, thinking only of their own personal gain. They come to Grandpa’s store and want to make a wager with Billy to see if his dogs can catch the infamous “ghost coon.” He is reluctant to accept, but agrees after observing how their disparaging remarks hurt Grandpa. Conflict arises the day of …show more content…
On a hunting trip, the dogs tree a mountain lion and Billy becomes “petrified with fear.” Old Dan will not leave and when the lion attacks, Billy is ready with his ax, which only angers the animal further. Old Dan and Little Ann quickly get between them, fighting to save their master’s life while jeopardizing their own. Finally, Billy kills the mountain lion and brings the dogs’ home to care for their wounds. Old Dan passes away soon afterwards and Little Ann’s will to live dies’ along with her brother. Billy becomes inconsolable as he wonders how God could let Old Dan and Little Ann die. After much doubt, he begins to when he sees the red fern, which marks a sacred place, growing between the dogs’ grave. Billy’s faith is tested and ultimately strengthened through a devastating
He later allows the reader to visualise his town through a description of his street. "Each deadbeat no-hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house in Longlands Road, Nowheresville." This repetition of colloquial negative adjectives expresses Billy's depressing feelings about his home. Billy's undesirable view of his town along with other factors such as being abused by his father aid his decision to leave and discover what else life has to offer. Because of his adverse position Billy decides to leave his town to seek a better life. To do this he becomes a homeless runaway which is his first transition in the
time as a prisoner, Billy learned that humans do not have control of their own free will.
Now Billy's life has been quite stressful, losing his father at such a young age and in the middle of a war. Then after this father's death Billy actually had to go off to war. And his wife, I mean she was no Marilyn Monroe and it wasn't like he was in love with her. Billy only marri...
“They had both found life meaningless, partly because of what they had seen in the war. Rosewater, for instance, had shot a fourteen-year-old fireman. mistaking him for a German soldier. So it goes. And Billy had Seen the greatest massacre in European history, which was the fire-bombing of Dresden. So it goes. So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their
Although she is obviously in disbelief, Billy seems rather proud of his first sexual encounter with a woman. As soon as this became apparent to Miss ratched, she began to mention how disappointed Billy’s mother will be when she hears what her son did. She says, “what worries me, Billy, -- is how your poor mother is going to take this” (315). She also states, “this is going to disturb her terribly. You know how she is when she gets disturbed”(315). Billy instantly becomes caught in her trap and begins to stutter, begging her not to tell his mother but Miss Ratched insisted that she must be informed. He continues to rat out Mcmurphy and Harding and states that they teased him into having sex with the woman. Miss Ratched then comforts Billy and takes him to the doctor’s office and tells the doctor that “he needs a lot of sympathy” because “he is in a pitiful state.” (317) Miss Ratched regains control of Billy by mentioning his mother because she knows of his underlying fear of the mother. Although it is completely normal for men to want sex, Miss Ratched makes him feel ashamed for the “sin” he had just committed to evidently secure her dominance of the
The book begins as a mystery novel with a goal of finding the killer of the neighbor's dog, Wellington. The mystery of the dog is solved mid-way through the book, and the story shifts towards the Boone family. We learn through a series of events that Christopher has been lied to the past two years of his life. Christopher's father told him that his mother had died in the hospital. In reality she moved to London to start a new life because she was unable to handle her demanding child. With this discovery, Christopher's world of absolutes is turned upside-down and his faith in his father is destroyed. Christopher, a child that has never traveled alone going any further than his school, leaves his home in order to travel across the country to find his mother who is living in London.
...om her mother and transported to a pet store where she was locked in a cage until she was purchased by my friend Hailey. I want you to think about her excitement to have a home and Hailey’s excitement to have a new pet to love. Now I want you to think about Hailey receiving the devastating news that her puppy had to be euthanized and Daisy’s fear as she was taken from her owner’s hands and put to death.
We are told of Phoenix?s journey into the woods on a cold December morning. Although we are know that she is traveling through woodland, the author refrains from telling us the reason for this journey. In the midst of Phoenix?s travels, Eudora Welty describes the scene: ?Deep, deep the road went down between the high green-colored banks. Overhead the live-oaks met, and it was as dark as a cave? (Welty 55). The gloomy darkness that the author has created to surround Phoenix in this scene is quite a contrast to the small Negro woman?s positive outlook; Phoenix is a very determined person who is full of life. As Phoenix begins to walk down the dark path, a black dog approaches her from a patch of weeds near a ditch. As he comes toward her, Phoenix is startled and compelled to defend herself: ?she only hit him a little with her cane. Over she went in the ditch, like a little puff of milk-weed? (55). Here, the author contrasts the main character?s strong will with her small, frail phys...
Mays, Kelly J. ""Puppy"" The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Through the view of 16 year old protagonist Billy, the reader is shown his struggles of being a homeless teen. Billy was in a state of homelessness because he ran away from "Nowheresville", and from his abusive father. This is proven on page 10, where in Billy's point of view it states, "The wind and rain hits you in the face with the force of a father's punch..." which implies that Billy knows what the force of a father's punch feels like. His abusive father is one of the main causes for Billy being homeless, and why Billy had hitched a train to Bendarat to start a new life.
Jake, Lucy’s neighbor was a well-educated kid. He was 15 years old and lives in an old timber house with his parents. Jake’s father was a farmer and had lived in the area since he was a lad. The area seemed to be haunted since creepy tales about all sorts of beasts was told. People even claimed that they were awakened some nights by a howling. Mostly people believed that it was a feral dog but Jakes father incised that it was a wolf, a ghost wolf. He was sure since he had seen a wolf in the forest when he was in Jake’s age, but none believed him. He kept telling his son about the wolf and Jake wanted to find out the truth. Lucy knew about Jake’s curiosity, at the same time as she decided to escape from her unbearable father. So she lied to get Jake by her side on the endless escape from the futureless community. She said that she knew where the wolf’s lair was. Jake got even more curious and joined her wolf hunting-adventure.
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally
Billy is not happy to stay behind and tells the elderly couple not to mess with him because he knows they don’t really want to keep him and he knows that he has just been dumped off. The couple
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.
The image of a short rope hanging from the dog’s neck is repeated throughout the piece to symbolize both, a past struggle, as well as a current obstacle, hindering his ability to move forward smoothly on his journey. Furthermore, the rope represents a past mentality of slavery and how even though this slave is now free, he isn’t really ‘free’ at all. The dragging rope is a constant reminder of where he has been and who he is on the surface. Society has fixed this idea that he carries no value and although he is persistent with repentance, this chastisement is seemingly perpetual. When the child introduced the dog to the family, “scorn was leveled at him from all eyes” as he made his case to the “family council,” announcing why this dog is worthy enough to become a member of the house (Crane 13). As it becomes evident that the dog is no longer being accepted, he becomes internally embarrassed and filled with shame as he is put on a display of mockery. The father returns home from work “in a particularly savage temper” and decided the dog could stay, but only because he believed it would provoke hostility in the family (Crane 13). Soon after, the child took the dog to his room and cried softly, while the father began his typical violent outbursts on the wife. The father’s ill humor is what permits the ‘acceptance’ of the dog in the family. A few nights later, the father storms the apartment drunk and throws the dog out of the window and the dark-brown dog falls to his