Where the Red Fern GrowsWilson Rawls

IntroductionBackgroundDiscussion Starters

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Where the Red Fern GrowsWilson Rawls

Where the Red Fern Grows: IntroductionHave you ever wanted

something so badly that you would do anything to get it?

About the Story• This story is presented as a memory which is called a

FLASHBACK. This is the story of a young, rural boy in which the first-person narrator tells about events that occurred 50 years earlier.

• Throughout the novel, we see the narrator as both a child and as a maturing young man who sets his heart on owning a pair of raccoon-hunting dogs.

• The main character, Billy Colman shows many strong characteristics:– Perseverance (fights through and keeps going)– Determination– Appreciation of family and nature– Possess a belief that a higher power than he is operating

in his life– By the end, of the novel, the author shows us that Billy

has gained yet another strength, the ability to accept change-even death- as an inevitable part of life.

Where the Red Fern Grows: IntroductionAll Billy Colman wants

is two raccoon-hunting hound

dogs to trek with him through the forests and river

valleys of the Ozark Mountains.

Where the Red Fern Grows: IntroductionBut Billy’s father tells him times are hard.

Some have taken jobs with the railroad just to put food on the table.

Many farmers can’t afford to feed their families.

Where the Red Fern Grows: IntroductionTen-year-old Billy vows to earn the money on his own by working in the fields, selling bait

to fishermen, trapping animals

for skins, and picking berries to

sell in his grandpa’s store.

Where the Red Fern Grows: IntroductionAfter two years of hard work,

Billy’s bank is full of dollars and coins.

So, his grandpa orders two prize coonhound puppies from an advertisement in a magazine.

Where the Red Fern Grows: Introduction

To pick up his pups from the train depot, Billy will have to walk

barefoot to the nearest town, which is

more than 20 miles away, in the dark of

night, through forests and hills and across

rivers.

Where the Red Fern Grows: Introduction

Does Billy’s persistence and hard work pay off?

And will he survive the dangerous journey?

Where the Red Fern Grows: Background

Like his character Billy, author Wilson Rawls grew up on a small farm in the Ozark

Mountains of northeastern Oklahoma.

The government had given the

land to Rawls’s mother because of her Cherokee

heritage.

Wilson Rawls•Wilson Rawls was born 1913 in Scraper, Oklahoma. He

lived with his parents on a farm and was taught to read and write by his mother. He said his life changed when his mother brought home the novel, The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. •Rawls wrote this novel twice! The first version, along

with many of his other stories, was secretly burned by Rawls. When he admitted this action, his new wife encouraged him to sit down and re-create at least one of the books. Appearing first as a series in the Saturday Evening Post (under the title Hounds of Youth) in the spring of 1961, Where the Red Fern Grows was published in hardcover.

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The goal was to create

traditional farms much like those of

white settlers.

Where the Red Fern Grows: Background

In 1887, the U.S. government passed a law to redistribute reservation land among

individual members of American Indian nations.

The Cherokees• In Chapter 2, Billy, the main character, talks about the setting of the

story:• “The land we lived on was Cherokee land, allotted to my mother

because of the Cherokee blood that flowed in her veins. It lay in a strip from the foothills of the mountains to the banks of the Illinois River in northeastern Oklahoma.”

• The land Billy describes was not the original home of his mother’s people. For centuries, the Cherokee lived much farther east in the southern Appalachian Mountains of what is now North Carolina. In that ancestral homeland, the Cherokee hunted, fished, and farmed. As Billy’s words suggest, Cherokee society was matrilineal: the inheritance of land was passed down through the female line; married med went to live on their wives land.

• With the arrival of European explorers and settlers, Cherokee life changed dramatically. During the 1750s and 1760s, the Cherokee tried unsuccessfully to fight off the newcomers who were moving rapidly through their land.

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The Cherokees• Then, forced to choose sides during the American Revolutionary

War, the Cherokee joined with the British against the American colonies; the British seemed more likely to let the Cherokee retain most of their land and their traditional ways. When the British lost the war, the Cherokee tried to hang onto their homeland by adapting to the colonists’ ways. All of their efforts were unsuccessful.

• By 1835, some members of the Cherokee gave in to government pressure (Andrew Jackson was president) and signed a treaty with the U.S., and moved west to stretch of land in northeast Oklahoma that was promised to the. Many Cherokee, however, chose not to move.

• During the winter of 1838-1839, United States troops forced 15,000 Cherokee out of their homes in the Appalachians. They were marched, primarily on foot, along a 1,000-mile-long trail to Oklahoma. Thousands died, and the march became known as the Trail of Tears

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But like much of this land, the Rawls

home was very rural far from any town, school, or doctor,

and surrounded by thick woods and

wild animals.

Where the Red Fern Grows: Background

Where the Red Fern Grows: BackgroundLife was already a challenge when the

stock market crash of 1929 helped trigger the Great Depression and a decade of lost

jobs,

low profits,low prices,low wages,

slow trade,

and high poverty.

Where the Red Fern Grows: BackgroundLike many Americans, writer Wilson Rawls was forced to leave home and travel the country in

search of work. The search for jobs took

him to

• Mexico

• South America

• Alaska

• Oregon

• Idaho • Canada

Life in the Ozarks in the 1920s

• During this time, daily life was hard. Many made do without conveniences such as electricity until the 1930s and 1940s.

EVERYONE in the family had work to do, and while many chores were stereotyped by gender (men and boys working outside;

women and girls inside, in the garden, caring for chickens, and providing food and clothes), everyone contributed in one way or

another. Farm families made weekly or monthly trips to town, but the rest of the time stayed around home with a fixed routine

of meals (lots of fried meat, cornbread, gravy, potatoes, and fruit) and hard work. The area for several miles around one’s home provided fishing and hunting pals, doctors, midwives

(delivers babies), annual picnics, courting opportunities (dating), and company and support for all of life’s milestones.

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Where the Red Fern Grows: BackgroundThe lack of food, clothing, shelter, and

medical care was a very real threat in those days.

The need to put food on the table and stay healthy

were daily struggles for Wilson Rawls

and his family and for the Colemans in Where the Red Fern

Grows.

Where the Red Fern Grows: Discussion Starters

Discuss (1)• Name other stories, books, or movies about

a boy and his dog or another pet. • Are you familiar with books about a girl and

her animal? • Why do you think these ideas appear often

in fiction? What effect do these coming-of-age stories have on a reader? Why are they powerful?

Where the Red Fern Grows: Discussion Starters

Discuss (2)Billy keeps his plan to save money and send away for the dogs a secret from his father. He even sneaks away in the dark of night on his twenty-mile journey. • Why do you think he kept his dream a

secret? • Did he make the right choice? Why or why

not?

Ozarks

Where the Red Fern Grows is set in the mountain country of the Ozarks. Some of the locations mentioned in the novel were Cyclone Timber county, Black Fox Hollow,

Tahlequah, and Cherokee land.

Ozarks OverviewThe Ozarks is an upland area of low mountains which are deeply incised by water erosion. The eroded areas are often very rugged, being difficult and treacherous to foot travel. Though the mountains of the Ozarks are relatively low, the highest point being only 2,578 feet above sea level, they nonetheless are the only large area of elevated land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies. Because the mountain peaks are relatively uniform in height, the term Ozarks Plateau is quite descriptive.

Encompassing about 55,000 square miles, the Ozarks Plateau is roughly bounded by the Mississippi River on the east, the Missouri River on the northeast, the Osage and Neosho rivers on the northwest and west, and the Arkansas River along the south. All of south central Missouri and most of northern Arkansas fall within these bounds. On a highway map, connect New Madrid to Cape Girardeau to St. Louis to Jefferson City to Osceola, in Missouri, to Miami to Tahlequah, in Oklahoma, to Russellville, in Arkansas, back to New Madrid, and you will have a good outline of the Ozarks Plateau.

The area in the light green

shows the area the story takes

place.

Find the Region

Remember, Billy’s

family lived in the

Oklahoma area.

Redbone HoundsIn the story, Billy saves his money for 2 years to buy his coonhound pups. The 2 dogs together are a remarkable hunting team, and help earn money during these difficult

Depression years.

These dogs became Billy’s best friends. It is these two pets who become the central focus of the story. Explore these links to learn more about the attributes of Redbone

Coonhounds.

Redbone Hounds

American Kennel Club

Redbone Hounds• Old Dan and Little Ann, are registered redbone coon hounds. One of the

oldest breeds of hunting dog, redbones are still sometimes classified as foxhounds. Redbones get their name from the color of their solid,

brownish-orange colored coats and their clean heads. Although their legs and ears are shorter than those of their cousins, the black-and-tan and blue tick hounds, redbones are valued for their sense of balance, agility, and adaptability. They are known to be fierce fighters both on land and in

the water.

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Blue Tick Hound

Hunting Raccoons• The kind of raccoon hunting that takes place in the

novel follows a definite pattern: The intelligent, problem-solving, resourceful raccoon often travels alone and generally knows when a hunting hound is on its trail. The raccoon will run along fences, swim creeks, and backtrack on itself in order to hide its scent-and itself- from a hound. The hound is trained to figure out these tricks. Its goal is to pick up the scent of a raccoon, bawl (a kind of bark) to let its master know when it has found a trail, and stick with the trail until it forces the raccoon to climb a tree. It’s the dog’s responsibility to keep the raccoon in the tree until the hunter arrives and gets the raccoon out of the tree. Either the dog or the hunter kills the raccoon.

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