68 pages • 2 hours read
Wilson RawlsWhere the Red Fern Grows
Wilson RawlsFiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1961A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 19-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
After winning the cup, Billy goes back to hunting with even more fervor. One night, Old Dan and Little Ann catch the trail of something that’s not a raccoon. Billy assumes it’s a bobcat. This doesn’t please him, for their hides have low quality fur, and the only use he can see in killing them, ironically, is “getting rid of a vicious predatory animal” (224).
The dogs finally tree the animal on top of a mountain. To Billy’s great fear, it’s a mountain lion. Little Ann is upset, but Old Dan challenges the lion aggressively. The lion attacks, and a fierce fight ensues.
Billy jumps in with his ax. The lion rears up, and Billy falls backward. Just as the lion’s about to strike, both hounds get between the lion and their master, saving his life. Billy finally gets a mortal blow in with the ax on the lion’s back. Billy starts leading the hounds home. Little Ann sustains a minor injury. Old Dan is a mass of blood and torn skin. As they’re walking back, a deep slash in Old Dan’s side opens, and his entrails fall out, getting caught on a bush. Billy puts them back in and carries Old Dan the rest of the way.
Mama doctors them up as best she can, but Old Dan soon dies with his head in Billy’s lap. Papa tells Billy not to think about the loss, and to be grateful he still has Little Ann: “‘I’m thankful that I still have her,’ I said, ‘but how can I forget Old Dan? He gave his life for me. How can I ever forget something like that?’” (234).
His parents go to bed, and Billy stays up trying to process Old Dan’s death. He hears a dog scratching on the door and thinks he’s come back alive, but when he goes out, he sees Little Ann curled up beside Old Dan’s body.
The next day, he buries Old Dan on a hill overlooking the beautiful valley. Little Ann stops eating and drinking. She’s lost her will to live. One day, she drags her weak body to Old Dan’s grave and dies there.
Billy is grief stricken, telling Mama he doesn’t believe in prayers anymore. That night, Papa brings out all the money Billy and his hounds have won. He says that God answered their prayers. Because of the hounds, they have enough money to move to town and get the children decent educations. Papa tells Billy that they were going to leave him behind so that he could help Grandpa. This way, he could continue to be with his hounds, but now that they’re gone, the family can stay together. Perhaps this is the reason Old Dan and Little Ann died, Papa offers.
Billy buries Little Ann beside Old Dan. He asks Mama if God made a heaven for dogs, with trees and raccoons and hunting lands. She says most definitely. With this question answered, Billy begins his journey of healing from this profound loss.
Chapter 20 Summary
Next spring, the day arrives that they leave the Ozarks forever. Everyone is in surprisingly high spirits. Billy goes to his hounds’ graves to say goodbye. When he reaches them, a beautiful red fern bush has grown up between them. Billy remembers the native legend of the red fern: Two little children were caught in a blizzard and froze. In the spring, a rare red fern grew between their bodies. Only angels can plant the red fern, according to this legend.
Billy calls for Mama to come see. The whole family runs to the graves. Mama is shocked. In tears, she says she never thought she’d see a red fern. Even Papa honors it, saying:
These hills are full of legends. Up until now I’ve never paid much attention to them, but now I don’t know. Perhaps there is something to the legend of the red fern. Maybe this is God’s way of helping Billy understand why his dogs died (247).
As they drive away, the family pauses to look back at their farm and the land surrounding it. They see their house cat scurry across the property, realizing they’ll be leaving her behind. They see the red fern on the hill, seeming to bid them goodbye.
Coming back to the present, where the novel begins, Billy the adult reflects that he never returned to the Ozarks. He wishes to go back, to revisit the land of his childhood, to seek out the old ax left buried in a tree, and to pay respects to the red fern and the secret buried beneath it.
The novel ends with Billy knowing the red fern is still there and believing in his heart the legend of its sacredness.
Chapters 19-20 Analysis
In the final chapters of the novel, Billy’s entire world abruptly turns upside down, as Old Dan and Little Ann die. In a way, Billy’s childhood dies with his hounds. This reality shift manifests in a much larger way as well, as the entire family leaves the Ozarks forever. The event confirms the beliefs of Mama and Papa.
The scene of the big fight with the mountain lion harkens back to earlier in the novel, when Billy first brings the hounds home. They hear a lion scream, and it circles them as they stay overnight in a cave. Old Dan seems to remember this event (Billy certainly does, at least), and challenges the lion. Because of this challenge, both hounds and the lion lose their lives. Although Billy credits Old Dan for saving his life, it is Old Dan’s tenacity and aggression that threatened Billy’s life in the first place (and Little Ann’s, as well).
Losing his hounds, Billy’s faith in God feels deeply shaken. His parents try to comfort him, but their adult perspective on the situation is beyond Billy’s comprehension and doesn’t consider the emotional connection Billy had to his dogs. They see clearly that the chain of events has enabled them to reach a practical goal: moving to town to improve their quality of life and education. To Billy, however, this loss is the loss of a part of himself that will never return. It is a profound, essential part of growing up.
As an adult, Billy wishes to return to this childhood place, both metaphorically and physically. He wonders if his ax and lantern are still stuck in a tree, left there the night of the mountain lion. He believes the sacred red fern is still there, as his love and memories of Old Dan and Little Ann lives forever in his heart.
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