Where The Red Fern Grows Sparknotes

There is no love quite like the love between a boy and his dog. A special type of love that shows a young boy what true love can feel like. The classic novel, Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, tells the story of a love between a young boy and his two dogs. A young boy named Billy Coleman lives in the Ozark Mountains with his family. At a young age, Billy developed an awful “disease” as he called it. What is the “disease” of puppy love? He longed to be able to have not just one, but two coon hounds. Although, Billy’s family could simply not afford two good coon hounds, as they just did not have that type of money. With determination and hard-work, Billy is eventually able to save up enough money for two pups to call his own–Old Dan and …show more content…
Jumping in between Billy and the mountain lion are the two injured hounds protecting their owner. Billy explains, “I knew that if it hadn’t been for their loyalty and unselfish courage I would have probably been killed by the slashing claws of the devil cat” (Rawls 260). Ultimately, the hounds end their own lives in order to save Billy’s. Old Dan dies from his injuries the next day, and Little Ann follows as she cannot bear to live without her brother. All together, Little Ann, Old Dan, and Billy all show a grand amount of love and loyalty towards each other throughout the novel Where The Red Fern Grows. All in all, there is no love quite like the love between a boy and his dog. In the novel, Where The Red Fern Grows, the story of Billy Coleman and his boyhood days with his best friends- Little Ann and Old Dan- is told. The two major themes that can be learned from the novel are determination, love, and loyalty. Billy and both his redbone hounds show great determination, love, and loyalty to one another throughout the entire novel. The three have such a bond with one another that allows them to have great success in coon