WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS: A REFLECTION

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back. Let's think about Where the Red Fern Grows.

My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Fowler read the book to us when I was in sixth grade. I liked it so much I read it again, maybe twice. I have never forgotten it.

My memory will always store the story of Billy Colman, Old Dan, and Little Ann.

 I have never forgotten how Billy Colman walked thirty miles to retrieve his dogs from the post office. I will never forget how the marshal of the town intervened with his boot against a gang of rowdy town boys bent on bullying Billy.

I will never forget how, on the way back home, the puppies bawled at a mountain lion. I will never forget how they treed the ghost coon and how Rubin Prichard died. I will never forget how they won a coon hunting contest and how they died.

I forgot a lot. I forgot how Billy came up with their names. I forgot how his grandfather helped him buy the puppies without his father finding out. I also forgot that Little Ann won a beauty contest.

I kept asking myself, “Why the title?”  I had to wait until the last chapter to rediscover it.

Obviously, I reread the novel recently. The story has a different affect on a fifty-seven year old reader than it had on an eleven year old boy.

There were many things I would not have noticed when I was eleven. The theology of the book was one. It was as unobtrusive as the paper bound within the novel covers.

God answers every single one of Billy Colman's prayers except the one that he prayed for Old Dan's life to be spared after his bloody fight against a mountain lion.

Billy experiences an amazing correlation between asking and receiving that people do not experience.

On the one hand there is no silly idea that God answers all prayers with either a "yes," a "no," and a "wait."   In the book, God only answers the prayers that come deep from the heart. On the other hand, there is the silly idea that all one has to do is ask, and one shall receive.

Sentimentalism abounds in this book. There are a lot of eyes weeping or welling up with tears in just about every chapter.  

The line, "I never saw anything like that in my life," is repeated numerous times. We Southerners love to say that about our possessions.

I also noticed that the writer was preaching to me. There are numerous places where the book sounds more like a sentimental gospel tract than a good story.

I noticed errors. Billy Colman says that "God helps those who help themselves" is in the Bible. Try Ben Franklin, Billy.

I guess I know too much in my old age.

Today, I prefer a book like Holes. It shows a providence that is not contrived. As I read Where the Red Fern Grows I kept hearing in the back of my head, "If only...if only..."

Wilson Rawls’ novel has so much about it that I love. The story is wonderful. The writing is splendid. Rawls includes details and similes in his narrative that are stunning.

For all its sentimental hogwash and evangelical fervor, I still love it. My eyes welled up more than once as I romped through the Ozarks with Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann.

Blessings...