Where the Red Fern Grows

Summary

Where the Red Fern Grows is narrated by Billy Colman, now a grown man in a town far from the Ozarks. Walking home from work one evening, he rescues an old redbone hound from a pack of town dogs, feeds it and lets it go home, and the encounter brings back the story of his boyhood. At ten Billy lives with his Mama, Papa and three younger sisters on a farm in the Cherokee country of the Oklahoma Ozarks, and he wants a pair of coon hounds more than anything. His parents cannot afford them. When he finds an advertisement for redbone pups in an old sporting magazine, he resolves to save the money himself, and for two years he sells fishing worms, crawfish, berries and vegetables to fishermen and to his Grandpa, who keeps the general store at the crossroads, until he has fifty dollars. Grandpa orders the pups from Kentucky. Too impatient to wait for a ride, Billy walks alone to the depot at Tahlequah, where townspeople and children laugh at the country boy, the kindly stationmaster helps him with his crate, and the marshal steps in when boys pick a fight. Camping in a cave on the way home, he hears a mountain lion scream and his pups answer it. He names them Old Dan, bold and strong, and Little Ann, small and clever, after names he finds carved on a tree. With Grandpa's help Billy catches a coon in a trap baited with something shiny, trains the dogs on its hide, and promises that if they tree a coon he will do the rest. Their first coon climbs the tallest sycamore on the river bottom, and Billy spends days chopping it down with blistered hands until, after he prays, a wind finishes the job. The dogs become famous. The bullying Pritchard brothers, Rubin and Rainie, bet that Old Dan and Little Ann cannot tree the ghost coon; they do, but Billy spares it. In the fight that follows, Rubin falls on Billy's axe and dies. Grandpa enters the dogs in a championship coon hunt; Little Ann wins the silver cup for looks, and in a terrible blizzard, with Grandpa lost for a time with a sprained ankle, the dogs win the gold cup and prize money. Not long after, the dogs fight a mountain lion to save Billy; Old Dan dies of his wounds and Little Ann, refusing food, dies on his grave. The prize money lets the family move to town so the children can go to school. On the last day Billy finds a red fern grown between the graves, which an old legend says only an angel can plant. Doubleday published the novel in 1961, after a shorter version ran in the Saturday Evening Post as The Hounds of Youth.

Plot or Argument

• Chapter 1: The old hound in town

  The grown Billy rescues a redbone hound from a fight with town dogs, cares for it overnight and watches it head for home, and remembers his own dogs.

• Wanting dogs and saving for them

  Ten-year-old Billy suffers from what he calls puppy love, finds an advertisement for redbone pups, and for two years earns and hoards fifty dollars; Grandpa orders the dogs from Kentucky.

• The walk to Tahlequah

  Billy hikes to town alone, is mocked and helped by turns, carries the pups home in a sack, spends a night in a cave hearing a mountain lion, and names his dogs from names carved on a tree.

• Training and the first coon

  With Grandpa's coon trap and advice Billy trains the dogs, and when their first coon climbs the giant sycamore he keeps his promise by chopping it down over several days.

• Hunting seasons and dangers

  Old Dan and Little Ann become the best coon dogs in the hills; Billy saves Little Ann from icy water and digs out Old Dan, and the bond among boy and dogs deepens.

• The ghost coon and the Pritchards

  Rubin and Rainie Pritchard bet against the dogs on the ghost coon; Billy will not kill the treed coon, the Pritchards' blue tick fights Old Dan, and Rubin dies on Billy's axe.

• The championship hunt

  Billy, Papa and Grandpa take the dogs to the championship; Little Ann wins the silver cup, and through a blizzard in which Grandpa is hurt and the dogs nearly freeze, they win the gold cup.

• The mountain lion

  On a late hunt the dogs tree a mountain lion and fight it to protect Billy; Old Dan dies of his wounds and Little Ann loses the will to live.

• Chapter 20: The red fern

  The family prepares to move to town with the prize money Mama had prayed for, and Billy finds a red fern growing between the two graves.

Characters

• Billy Colman, narrator and protagonist

  Determined Ozark farm boy who saves for two years to buy his coon hounds.

• Old Dan, redbone coonhound

  Strong, fearless male hound who will never quit a trail.

• Little Ann, redbone coonhound

  Small, gentle, clever female hound who works out the coons' tricks.

• Grandpa, Billy's grandfather

  Storekeeper who buys Billy's goods, orders the pups and enters them in the championship.

• Papa, Billy's father

  Quiet farmer who helps Billy and goes with him to the championship hunt.

• Mama, Billy's mother

  Praying mother who longs for her children to have schooling in town.

• Rubin Pritchard, antagonist

  Older, mean Pritchard boy who bets against Billy and dies by accident on Billy's axe.

• Rainie Pritchard, antagonist

  Rubin's younger brother, a sly and unhappy boy.

Lessons

• Work and patience

  Billy does not wait for someone to give him dogs. He earns them a few cents at a time over two years, and the long saving makes the pups more precious to him. The book shows that a desire held patiently and worked for can shape a boy's character.

  • How does Billy earn the money for his dogs, and how long does it take?
  • Why does Mama think Billy's success is an answer to prayer?
  • Is something you work for worth more than something you are given?

• Keeping a promise

  Billy tells his pups that if they tree a coon he will do the rest. When the coon climbs the biggest sycamore in the bottoms, Papa and Grandpa tell him he could give up, but he chops for days until his hands are raw. A promise, even one made to dogs, binds him.

  • Why does Billy refuse to give up on the big sycamore?
  • What happens when Billy prays for help with the tree?

• Loyalty to the end

  Old Dan never leaves a trail and Little Ann never leaves Old Dan. When the mountain lion attacks, both dogs throw themselves at it to save Billy, and when Old Dan dies, Little Ann will not live without him. The dogs show a love that asks nothing back.

  • How do Old Dan and Little Ann protect Billy from the mountain lion?
  • Why does Little Ann stop eating after Old Dan dies?
  • What do the dogs teach Billy about faithfulness?

• Grief and comfort

  Billy is angry and heartbroken when his dogs die, and he cannot see why it had to happen. Papa suggests that God may have had a reason, and the red fern between the graves brings Billy peace. The book lets a young reader grieve fully and also find hope.

  • What does Papa say to comfort Billy after the dogs die?
  • What does the red fern mean to Billy and his family?
  • How can people find comfort when someone they love dies?

Context

The story is set in the hill country of northeastern Oklahoma, in the Cherokee lands around Tahlequah, in the early twentieth century, when farms there had no electricity, families traded at crossroads stores and hunting coons for their pelts brought rural boys real money. Rawls grew up in this country near Scraper and drew on his own boyhood and his own hounds. The frame narrator looks back from adulthood on a world that had largely disappeared by the time the book was written.

Composition

Rawls wrote stories for years without publishing them and burned his manuscripts before his marriage in 1958. Encouraged by his wife Sophie, he rewrote this one in a few weeks. The Saturday Evening Post published a shortened version as a three-part serial, The Hounds of Youth, in 1961, and Doubleday published the full novel later that year under the new title Where the Red Fern Grows.

Reception

The book sold modestly at first as a novel for adults. Rawls, who spoke to schoolchildren across the country, and his publishers later presented it to teachers and young readers, and it became a classroom favorite; Publishers Weekly reported that more than six million copies had been sold by 2001. It was filmed in 1974 and again in 2003, and a statue of Billy with Old Dan and Little Ann stands at the Idaho Falls Public Library, near where Rawls wrote the book.

Comparisons

• the-call-of-the-wild

  Rawls credited Jack London's books with making him want to write. London tells his story from inside the dog Buck; Rawls tells his from the boy, and his hounds stay loyal to their master to the death where Buck answers the wild.

• the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer

  Both are boyhood stories of river country, nighttime adventures and a death that shadows a boy's play; Twain's tone is comic and Rawls's tender and grieving.

• my-side-of-the-mountain

  Sam Gribley and Billy Colman both learn the woods through patience and work, and both have animal companions; Sam lives alone by choice, while Billy's woodcraft ties him more closely to his family.

• little-house-in-the-big-woods

  Wilder's Pa and Rawls's Papa and Grandpa belong to the same world of hunting, trapping and trading pelts at a store, seen in both books through a child's eyes.

• black-beauty

  Both books ask readers to love an animal as a creature with its own loyalty and suffering; Sewell pleads for better treatment of horses, while Rawls honors the faithfulness of working dogs.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening chapter, where a grown man rescues an old hound in town, and how it frames the whole story as a memory.
• Every time Billy, Mama or Papa prays, and what follows each prayer.
• The differences between Old Dan and Little Ann, and how each dog's nature shows in the hunts and in the way each dies.
• Billy's choices on the night of the ghost coon: the bet, his refusal to kill the coon, and the accident that follows.
• Grandpa's role: how he buys Billy's goods, orders the pups, plans the coon trap and enters the championship.

Key terms and names

Redbone coonhound

A breed of red-coated hunting dog bred to follow a raccoon's scent and bay at the tree where it climbs. Billy's two pups come by train from Kentucky.

Tahlequah

The town where Billy picks up his pups at the depot. It is the first town he has ever seen, and he is both frightened and amazed by it.

Treeing

When a coon dog chases a raccoon until it climbs a tree and then stays at the base baying. Billy promises his dogs that if they tree a coon he will do the rest.

The ghost coon

A clever old raccoon that has fooled every hunter in the area. The Pritchard boys bet that Billy's dogs cannot tree it.

The gold cup

The prize of the championship coon hunt, won by Old Dan and Little Ann in a blizzard. Little Ann also wins a silver cup for her looks.

The red fern

The plant Billy finds growing between his dogs' graves. An old legend says only an angel can plant one and that the place where it grows is sacred.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Billy get the money to buy his pups, and how does he bring them home from Tahlequah?
2. Comprehension What happens on the night of the ghost coon hunt with Rubin and Rainie Pritchard?
3. Comprehension How do Old Dan and Little Ann win the championship hunt in spite of the blizzard?
4. Interpretation Billy keeps chopping the giant sycamore even when Papa and Grandpa say he can quit. What does this tell us about Billy, and why does the author include the wind after his prayer?
5. Interpretation Billy refuses to kill the ghost coon after his dogs have treed it. Why, and how does this choice set him apart from the Pritchards?
6. Interpretation After Rubin dies, Billy feels sorrow for a boy who had been cruel to him. What does his reaction show about him?
7. Interpretation Papa suggests that the dogs' deaths and the prize money may be connected to Mama's prayers. Do you think Billy fully accepts this? What finally gives him peace?
8. Big Question Can an animal truly love a person, and what does it mean for a person to be worthy of that love?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 7:7-11 (Scripture)

  Jesus says to ask, seek and knock, and that the Father gives good gifts to those who ask. Billy prays for help to get his dogs and later to fell the sycamore, and Mama sees his success as her prayers and his answered.

• John 15:13 (Scripture)

  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Old Dan and Little Ann throw themselves at the mountain lion to save Billy, and Old Dan dies of it.

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 (Scripture)

  There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. The final chapter moves Billy from the weeping of the graves to the hope of the red fern and the family's new life in town.

• C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Chapter 9 (Animal Pain) (Great Conversation)

  Lewis speculates that animals who are loved by their masters may share in some way in their masters' life with God. Billy's family, finding the red fern between the dogs' graves, reaches for a similar hope.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Billy wants hounds more than anything, and because he works and prays for them for two years, they become part of him. The dogs repay his care with perfect loyalty, even to death. Their deaths seem senseless to Billy, but they come just as the prize money they won makes it possible for the family to move to town, as Mama had prayed. Therefore the story argues that love and loss are both part of a larger purpose, and the red fern is the sign that such love is sacred.

Rhetorical device: frame narrative. The novel opens with the grown Billy rescuing an old redbone hound in town and closes with him imagining the red fern still covering the graves, so the whole story is told as a memory that still moves him decades later.

Debate: Resolved: Billy was right to spare the ghost coon even though it cost him the Pritchards' bet money.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare Old Dan and Little Ann. Show how their different natures appear in the training, the championship hunt and the fight with the mountain lion, and explain why Billy needed both of them.

Comparison with The Call of the Wild: Buck in The Call of the Wild leaves the world of men for the wild, while Old Dan and Little Ann give their lives for Billy. Compare how London and Rawls picture the bond between a dog and its master, and argue which picture is truer to what you know of dogs.

Medical Lens

The book's medical interest lies chiefly in grief. It gives young readers a full account of bereavement: Billy's shock and anger when Old Dan dies, his refusal of comfort, Little Ann's decline after her companion's death, which the book presents as an animal dying of sorrow, and the slow consolation of family, faith and the legend of the red fern. For a reader interested in childhood bereavement, the book is notable for letting the boy's grief run its course without hurrying him to comfort. Physical injury is described plainly for a children's book: Rubin Pritchard's death from a fall on an axe, Old Dan's fatal wounds from the mountain lion, Billy's blistered and bleeding hands from chopping the sycamore, the dogs' ice-coated coats and Grandpa's sprained ankle in the championship blizzard. There are no doctors in the story; injuries are treated at home by family with whatever is at hand.

• Chopping the big sycamore

  Billy chops for days until his hands are blistered and bleeding, refusing to quit on his promise to the dogs.

  Pain
• The ghost coon and the Pritchards

  Rubin Pritchard trips while running with Billy's axe and is fatally wounded; Billy is left shaken by the death.

  Death Dying
• The championship hunt

  In a blizzard Grandpa falls and sprains his ankle and is lost for a time; the dogs are found coated in ice and are thawed and rubbed by the fire.

  Pain Nursing Caregiving
• The mountain lion

  Old Dan is mortally wounded fighting the lion and dies; Little Ann refuses food and dies on his grave.

  Death Dying Grief
• Chapter 20

  Billy's grief is eased when the family finds the red fern between the graves and Papa and Mama speak of God's purposes.

  Grief

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Make a map of Billy's country: the farm, Grandpa's store, the river bottoms, the walk to Tahlequah, the championship campground and the two graves under the sycamore.

• Fiction

  Write a page from Little Ann's point of view on the night she and Old Dan first tree a coon in the giant sycamore.

• Essay

  Billy spares the ghost coon after his dogs tree it. Explain why he refuses to kill it and what this shows about the kind of hunter he is.

• Poetry

  Write a short poem that Billy might have carved on a board at the head of the two graves.

Further Reading

• Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls

  Rawls's second novel, also set in the Oklahoma Ozarks.

• The Call of the Wild, Jack London

• Old Yeller, Fred Gipson

  A Texas frontier novel of a boy, his dog and a painful loss.

• The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis

  Its chapter on animal pain considers whether loved animals share in their masters' life.