FREE ESSAY ON WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS

WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS

Billy is coming home from work one day when suddenly he hears some dogs up the street
fighting. He goes to check it out and finds them picking on a redbone hound. He saves the
dog and cares for it through the night. It reminds him of his childhood.
When Billy was ten years old he lived on a farm in the Ozark Mountains of northeastern
Oklahoma. He wanted two good coonhounds very badly, he called it "puppy love", but his
papa could not afford to buy him the dogs. For many months, Billy tries to content
himself with some rodent traps his papa gives him, but he still wants a dog. Then one day
he finds a sportsman's catalog in an abandoned campsite. In it he sees an ad for good
hounds, at $25 each. He decides he wants to save $50 and order himself two hounds. Billy
works hard, selling fruit and bait to fishermen, and gathering fruit that he sells to his
grandfather at his store. 
Finally, he saves enough money and gives it to his grandfather to order the dogs for him
and asks him to keep it s secret. When a notice comes that they have arrived at the mail
depot in the nearby town of Tahlequah, they decide to go into town the next week. That
night Billy decides he can not wait any longer. He packs himself a little food, and heads
of for town following the river through the woods. He walks all night, and finally
reaches town in the morning.
The people in town laugh and stare at the young hillbilly, but it does not bother Billy
he is there on a mission to get his dogs. He finally collects his dogs and walks back out
of town with their small heads sticking out of his bag. Some schoolchildren mob around
him and knock him down, but the town sheriff rescues him. The sheriff is impressed with
Billy's determination, and says he has grit.
That, night Billy camped in a cave with his two puppies. They wake up in the middle of
the night to hear the call of a mountain lion. Billy builds a fire to keep them safe,
while the bigger of the two dogs, the male, barks into the night air. The next morning he
stops at the campsite where he found the catalog. There he sees the names "Dan" and "Ann"
carved into a tree. He decides to name the dogs Old Dan and Little Ann.
Billy was nervous about going home. He was afraid his parents would be worried and angry
with him for leaving unexpectedly. They were not mad though they were actually proud. His
grandfather had told them everything and they understood.
Once Billy was home he wanted to start training his dogs. He needed a raccoon hide and
went to his grandfather for help. His grandfather shows him how to make a trap that will
lure a coon, and after many tries he finally catches one. His father helps him kill it
after he caught it.
Using the hide, Billy trained his hounds. He drags the coon over a certain path, and then
the hounds have to track the hide by smelling its scent. By the time raccoon season
starts in the fall they are ready. On the first night of hunting his dog's tree a coon in
a tree that Billy said was the "big tree" of the bottoms and he had always admired it, so
he decides not to cut it down. When the dogs see his intent they pout. He then remembers
that he had promised his dogs that if they could tree a coon he would do the rest. Billy
then becomes determined to cut down the gigantic tree. His father finds him in the
morning and brings him food. Later that evening his grandfather shows him how to make a
scarecrow, to keep the coon in the tree so he can go home and eat dinner. 
The next morning he finds that Old Dan and Little Ann have taken turns guarding the tree
all night and he is very proud of them. He works all day until he gets blisters and
thinks he is going to have to give up. However, the wind pushed the tree down for him and
his dogs kill the coon and they all proudly head for home. When he gets home he tells his
papa that he prayed and does he think the wind pushing down the tree was God answering
his prayer. 
Billy goes hunting almost every night and his dogs get smarter and smarter. His
grandfather tells him that coonskin prices are up because there is a fad for coonskin
coats in the New England states. Billy starts hunting even more and then sells the skins
to his grandfather's store and gives the money to his papa who is doing Billy's chores
for him while he hunts.
Sometimes the coons would try to trick the dogs and Old Dan would end up in trouble. Once
he was in a muskrat hole and Billy had to get him out and another time he got stuck in a
tree trunk. Little Ann got into her own trouble too. One night after the first snow of
the year had arrived Little Ann fell through ice. Billy sees her barely hanging on to the
side of some ice and thinks it is hopeless and sits down and prays for a miracle. His
lantern falls and makes a noise and that is when he realizes that he can bend the handle
and fish her out of the water. When he got home he thought about how the lantern fell
just as he was praying and got his attention. He asked his mother if all prayers are
answered and she thought it was sweet that he asked such a question.
One day while Billy was at his grandfather's store the Pritchard boys came up. Ruben and
Rainie Pritchard are the meanest boys in the area. They tell Billy that his hounds are
not tough and that his grandfather is crooked. Billy's mother always tells him not to
mind the boys because they are abused and can not help being mean. This time though it
was different because they insulted his dogs and his grandfather. They dare Billy to a
bet; he is apprehensive but has to accept. Billy has to meet the boys at their land and
try to catch the legendary "ghost coon".
The chase is not going well when all of sudden the wind picks up and Little Ann catches a
scent and discovers the coon in a nearby hollow fence post. When the coon is finally
treed Billy thinks it is impressive and does not want to kill it. Just then Old Blue the
Pritchard's dog appears. Ruben attacks Billy and wrestles him to the ground so Old Blue
can kill the coon. While they are fighting Rainie shouts that Old Dan and Little Ann are
fighting Old Blue. Ruben gets off of Billy and gets his ax and runs after them going to
kill Billy's hounds. Ruben trips on a stick and falls on the ax killing himself. Billy
pulls his dogs off of Old Blue and then checks on Ruben finding him dead. Very scared
Billy immediately ran for home. Billy felt bad for days and did not want to go hunting.
Finally he goes and puts flowers on Ruben's grave. Doing that makes him feel better and
he goes camping that night.
Billy's grandfather sent for Billy one day and told him that he had been keeping up with
how many skins he had turned in to the store. He told him that he had qualified to be in
a coon hunting championship. Billy, his grandfather, and father take a buggy to the
contest. When they arrive they see the campsite filled with tents, each containing adult
coon hunters with expensive gear and beautiful hounds. Somehow though Little Ann won the
beauty contest held on the first day of competition. The other coon hunters were kind and
congratulated Billy.
Billy has to catch three coons to qualify for the finals. Billy chooses a good starting
point for his hounds and they quickly catch their first coon of the night. A blizzard
comes and all the hunters head in to their campsite. That is when they realize Billy's
grandfather is missing. They go out searching for him and find him unconscious and with a
twisted ankle. Once he revives he tells Billy there is three coons in a certain tree and
to chop it down to get them. He kills two and one escapes. He gestures toward the third
one and the dogs go after it. He chases after them and finds them with the coon. He kills
the coon and wins the jackpot of $300.
One night later on his dogs tree a mountain lion and the big cat attacked Old Dan and
Little Ann. Billy rushed in with his ax and then when the cat was about to pounce on him
the two dogs jump in and save his life. The dogs fight with mountain lion until Billy
gets a good lick with the ax across its back. Both dogs are hanging limply around the
throat of the mountain lion and clamping down on its jugular. Both dogs where injured
though, Little Ann had a cut on her shoulder, but Old Dan was much worse. Billy cries
while he uses the dog's blood to make mud and fill up the wounds, he was trying to stop
the bleeding long enough to get him home. 
Walking home he hears Little Ann whimper, Old Dan had fallen behind and his innards were
hanging out of his body and hung on a bush. Billy gently pushed them back in and got him
home. When they finally return home, his mother runs the dog's entrails through water,
but it is not enough. The dog dies, and Billy is crushed. He buries Old Dan on a high
hill overlooking the valley. In a few days, it is clear that Little Ann has lost her will
to live. She dies too, and he buries her next to Old Dan. Billy is heartbroken; he says
that God is not fair. Billy's papa tries to tell him that it is all for the best, because
with the money Billy has earned, the family hopes to move to town. Billy does not
completely recover until on the day of the move, he goes to visit the dogs' graves and
finds a giant red fern. According to Indian legend, only an angel can plant a red fern.
Billy and his family look at the fern in awe. They leave him, and while he is looking at
the fern he makes peace with the fact that his dogs have died.