The picture book Fox by Megan Wilde is a bitter, heart-warming story about Dog and Magpie. In this book, Magpie has burnt her wing and can no longer fly. Dog is blind in one eye and cannot see to the best of his abilities. Magpie sits on Dogs shoulders as Dog races through the woods, and this is the substitute to flying for Magpie. As Dog and Magpie sit outside one night, Fox arrives. Dog invites Fox to take shelter with him and Magpie, and Fox agrees to stay. Fox then tells Magpie to come with him, because Fox runs much faster, and promises Magpie that she'll be happier with him. Fox convinces Magpie to leave Dog after 3 requests. Fox runs through the forest at break-neck speed, leaving Magpie awed and speechless as Fox stops to catch his breath. Fox tells Magpie she'll now know what it truly feels like to be alone, and then leaves her in the desert. Magpie stops for a few beats, and then begins her "long journey home."
Although every character in the book has an adept personality, Fox's is the most complex and compelling. When Fox first comes into the book, it reads: "After the rains, when saplings are springing up everywhere, a fox comes into the bush. Fox with his haunted eyes and rich red coat. He flickers through the trees like a tongue of fire, and Magpie trembles." The part of this that reads that Fox flickered through the trees like a tongue of fire to me seemed like a connection tot eh past reference to Magpie and her burnt wing: just like fire destroyed Magpie's wing, Fox (the tongue of fire) destroyed Magpie's friendship. This is one idea of what Fox represents-destruction.
Another thing that Fox represents is loneliness. When he abandons Magpie, he says: “Now you and Dog will know what it is like to be truly alone.” This statement not only tells readers that Fox planned to separate the two, but also suggests that Fox himself has experienced what it's like to be lonely, and maybe what it's like to be separated from someone you love. Fox spread the feeling of being alone to Dog and Magpie, and attempted to make them feel as lonely as he has/had felt. This shows that Fox represents loneliness.
Finally, Fox represents is jealousy. Fox has experienced so much pain and grief, and then he finds Dog and Magpie. Although Magpie has a burnt wing and can't fly, and Dog has lost sight in one eye, both are happy. Fox feels jealousy that he does not have the happiness that Dog and Magpie have. I think that that also connects back to the previous paragraph, were he's so jealous and bitter he separates the two, believing it will bring him happiness.
In conclusion, I find that I am both sorry for and angry at Fox. I feel pity for Fox because of his baggage and pain. He is loneliness and pain, and it so bitter that he enforces his pain on others. I feel a stronger sense of anger toward Fox. This is because while he may have pain and sadness and represent loneliness, he also represents destruction and jealousy. Fox did not have to enforce his misfortune on others. I also find that although Fox brought much destruction and damage, he also brought a bit of good. In the beginning, Magpie was unhappy she could not fly, and in the text it reads: "Days, perhaps a week later, she wakes with a rush of grief." Magpie feels grief because she cannot fly. After Fox abandons her, it says, "Magpie huddles, a scruff of feathers adrift in heat. She can feel herself burning into nothingness. It would be so easy just to die here in the desert.
But then she thinks of Dog waking to find her gone. Slowly, jiggety-hop, she begins the long journey home." This shows that although Magpie wants so badly to give up - something she's been doing all through the book - she thinks of Dog and how much she loves him and walks home. This small thing shows that Magpie accepts that she can no longer fly. I can connect this book to the real world, because, like Fox separating Dog and Magpie, there is always good with bad.
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