ENGLISH DISCIPLINE

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
SUBMITTED BY-
YANA KHARE
19/BAP/265
6TH SEMESTER
22th FEBURARY 2022
ASSIGNMENT
QUESTION: Can Fantastic Mr Fox be read as an environmentalist plea? 
ANSWER: Fantastic Mr Fox is a children’s novel published by British author Roald Dahl
in the year 1970. Roald Dahl has become one of the world’s best-selling authors with over
250 million copies sold worldwide. Some of his famous works include- The BFG, Matilda,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches.
Roald Dahl was inspired to write this story because of the 150-year-old beech tree which
was locally known as “the witch’s tree”. The tree was located near his home in Great
Missenden. While his children were growing up, he used to tell them stories about the tree
and that it was where Mr Fox lived with his family, in a hole beneath the trunk, just as the
Fox family does in the story.
The story of Fantastic Mr Fox revolves around the main character that is Mr Fox and how
he steals from Farmer Bean, Farmer Boggis and Farmer Bunce to feed his family. Finally
tired of being constantly outwitted by Mr Fox, the farmers attempt to capture and kill him
but they are unsuccessful even with their machinery as they burrow deep into the ground.
The farmers destroy the hill while digging. The farmers camp-out outside the hole to catch
Mr Fox. Unable to leave Mr Fox devises a plan to steal from the farmers by digging a
tunnel right under where the farmers keep their poultry. The Moles, The Rabbits, The
Weasels and The Badgers lose their home and are starving so Mr Fox invites all the
animals to live with him and promises to provide them with food daily while on the other
side the farmers remain waiting outside in vain for Mr Fox to show up.
“All nature is linked together by invisible bonds and every organic creature, however low,
however feeble, however dependent, is necessary to the well-being of some other among
the myriad forms of life.”
~ George Perkin Marsh
The humans are a part of the nature and thus are interdependent. One cannot exist without
the other.
Yes, I think the story of Fantastic Mr Fox can be read as an environmentalist plea because
it symbolically represents a conflict between Man and Nature, with farmers being
symbolised as mankind and animals being symbolised as nature.
The author emphasises the mechanisation with the words, “The machines were both black.
They were murderous, brutal-looking monsters.” The portrayal of machines in this way
symbolises the way humans have increasingly used technology, especially in agriculture,
to destroy the environment. It has led to severe impacts in nature like soil erosion,
deforestation and pollution.
The author also stresses the cruelty of farmers towards their poultry birds as the farmers
kept them in thousands in their shed and used to consume them daily. It also depicts the
greed and the depravity of human beings.
The story also focuses on the torture that the humans bring upon Mother Nature with the
reference to “they had dug a hole so deep you could have put a house in it.” The expansion
of human life has led to many animals being forced to move and their homes being lost.
But when the wild animals try to steal a small amount of food they are hunted and, in the
process, the entire ecosystem gets destroyed and the other animals in the area also suffer.
The author in a way is begging mankind to not destroy nature and to help preserve it with
the words “the desperate race” of the Fox family against the machines”.
The author’s insistence in “the hungry cries of children” is a request from all of the
animals to have something to eat and to not be destroyed by mankind. The will to live is as
much real as it is for humans.

References
1. Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
2. www.gradesaver.com
3. www.roalddahl.com