Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Where the Red Fern grows

A novel by Wilson Rawls named Where the Red Fern Grows

is the story of a boy, his two hounds (which he named Old Dan and

Little Ann), and all of the adventures they shared together. A

loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of

the Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn, Little Ann had the

brains, and Billy had the will to train them to be the finest hunting

team in the valley. Glory and victory awaited them, but sadness

waited too. Close by was the strange and wonderful power that is

only found Where the Red Fern Grows. An exciting tale of love

and adventure one will never forget. Some themes that will be

encountered in this novel are the passage from youth to maturity,

the rewards of hard work and diligence, and working together to

achieve common goals. All of these themes and more can be found

in the novel Where the Red Fern Grows.

One theme illustrated in this novel was the passage from youth to maturity. An

example of this is when Billy stopped asking for two hounds and saved up enough money

to get them himself. He sold items to fisherman at very low prices but he was determined

and would also take any offer they would give him. Another example shown is when

Billy bought everyone something from Tahlequah with his own money. A normal child

would but himself lots of candy and seldom share it but Billy didn’t. He bought his mom

cloth, his dad overalls, and his sister’s candy. This example greatly showed the passage

from youth to maturity. Another example depicted was when Billy made a promise to his

dogs that the first coon they treed he would skin so when his hounds put a coon up the

biggest tree in the forest, Billy didn’t walk away from the fact that it was very tall and

started chopping the tree down and didn’t give up until the coon was skinned unlike a

child who would have no patience and be careless. One last example is when Billy took

the death of his dogs like a man and buried them in the nicest spot in the Ozark Mountain

Ranges. He cared very much about his hounds and wanted them to have a very

comfortable and happy afterlife unlike many others which would have just thrown the

hounds off a cliff or do something unpleasan...

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...f it wasn’t when

Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann worked together, someone could have been brutally ripped

apart or even maybe everyone could have died at that very moment in the dark and lonely

mountain ranges of the Ozark Mountains. So even though good happenings were on there

way to Billy, hardships were right behind and if it wasn’t for working together , none of

the happiness, joy, and/or jubilance would have occurred.

In conclusion, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls was a jubilant yet at

the same time melancholy tale about a boys adventures with two hounds. When Billy

received his hounds, his whole life changed. He had he best two dogs in the Ozarks and

he proved it at the coon-hunting tournament. Nothing mattered anymore. Old Dan and

Little Ann opened the door to Billy and Billy walked through it with no fear. Then,

suddenly, when everything was going fine, something tragic occurred and all of Billy’s

dreams were thrown away at an instant. All of this and more could be found in the loving

tale of Where the Red Fern Grows.