Northeastern Oklahoma in a valley in the OzarksThe story starts in present day—meaning roughly the 1960s—but most of it takes place about a half-century earlier. We aren't given an exact date by Rawls, but get out your calculators and you'll see that the 1920s would be a safe guess, since there's talk of bootlegging and raccoon coats. Show
But other than some old-fashioned words about buggies, historical trends don't intrude too much on Billy's childhood. He's so isolated that he could be living in about any time between the 1850s and the 1950s, and his story probably wouldn't look too different. What matters is the woods. The forest of Billy's childhood is so important that it's practically a character in its own right. A Country Boy in Not So Big CityWhat kid wouldn't enjoy running around in the woods with no responsibilities besides looking after a pair of really impressive dogs? Sounds a lot like paradise to us, and Billy feels the same way too. He never seems bummed out about how poor his family is, or that he has no shoes, or that he's never tasted a soft drink—as long as he's in the woods. Billy believes he lives in "the finest hunting country in the world" (2.10). In recounting his story, Billy will often pause and discuss the beauty of the woods around him: the "aromatic scent of wild flowers" (2.13), "the clear blue waters of the Illinois river" (2.14), and the "tall sycamores" (2.14), which all combined to create "the most beautiful place in the whole wide world" (2.15). To be fair, Billy doesn't have a lot to compare this scenery to—but it sure sounds beautiful, and he sure loves it. So if he's happy when he's in the woods how does he feel about town? You guessed it. Not too great. The one time we see Billy unsure of himself is when he goes into town to pick up his dogs. This change of setting takes Billy out of his comfort zone. Some local boys tease him, which gets under his skin in a way that even Rubin and Rainie can't. In fact Billy gets so upset that he gets into a fight with the town boys, "As I turned to face the mob, I doubled up my fist, and took a Jack Dempsey stance" (5.51). This is seriously out of character for Billy. Once he is removed from his safe haven of the woods, he gets all mixed up. As he tells his family once he's home, the town is so "crowded" that he can't even "get a breath of fresh air"; it was "boiling with people," and "the wagon yard was full of wagons and teams" (6). No wonder he runs back to the woods as soon as he can. Red in Tooth and ClawBilly may feel at peace in the woods, but let's not forget it's not exactly the safest place in the world. His mom is rightly concerned about Billy being in the woods by himself at night. He is often confronted with life and death situations, like near-drownings, dangerous animals, and heavy snowstorms. Sure, the woods provide raccoons—and money—for Billy's family. But they also take away, in the form of a giant, bad-tempered mountain lion. Where the Red Fern Grows is set in the Ozark Mountains on Cherokee land in northeastern Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Billy Coleman's father farms the land. His grandfather, a driving force and constant source of encouragement to Billy, runs a country general store and mill. The store is a gathering place for the area's racoon hunters. Their home is nestled deep in the heart of nature. [The house] was in a beautiful valley far back in the rugged Ozarks. The country was new and sparsely settled. 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 was rich, black, and fertile . . . [The log house was] nestled at the edge of the foothills... Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Red Fern Grows is a 1961 children's novel by Wilson Rawls about a boy who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhounds for hunting.[1] The book is a work of autobiographical fiction based on Rawls' own childhood in the Ozarks. Plot summary[edit]Billy Coleman, a middle-aged man, rescues a redbone hound under attack by neighborhood dogs. He takes it home with him so that its wounds can heal. In light of this event, he has a flashback to when he was a ten-year-old boy living in the Ozark Mountains. Young Billy Coleman wants nothing more than a pair of hounds for coon hunting. After seeing a magazine ad for coon hounds, Billy spends the next two years working odd jobs to earn the $50 he needs to buy two puppies. Billy's dogs are delivered to Tahlequah, over 20 miles away. Billy decides to walk the distance. As he returns with the dogs, he sees a heart carved on a tree with the names "Dan + Ann" and decides to name the puppies Little Ann and Old Dan. With his grandfather's help, Billy teaches his dogs to be very loyal to each other and to Billy. The first night of hunting season, Billy promises the dogs that if they tree a coon, he will do the rest. They tree one in a huge sycamore, which Billy believes is far too large to chop down. Remembering his promise to his dogs, Billy spends the next two days attempting to chop down the sycamore. Exhausted, Billy prays for the strength to continue, whereupon a strong wind blows the tree over. Billy and his hounds become well-known as the best hunters in the Ozarks. Billy's grandfather makes a bet with Rubin and Rainie Pritchard that Old Dan and Little Ann can tree the legendary "ghost coon" that has eluded hunters for years. After a long, complicated hunt, Old Dan and Little Ann manage to tree the raccoon, but having seen how old and smart the ghost coon is, Billy cannot bring himself to kill it. Billy tries to stop the Pritchards from killing the raccoon, leading to a fight with Rubin. The Pritchards' dog Old Blue joins the fight, provoking Old Dan and Little Ann to attack Old Blue to drag him away from Billy. Rubin tries to drive Billy's dogs away with Billy's axe, but trips, falls on the blade, and dies. Billy is deeply troubled by the tragic turn of events, but does not regret his choice to spare the ghost coon. Billy's grandfather enters him into a championship coon hunt against experienced hunters. Before the main hunt starts Billy enters Little Ann into a beauty hound competition. She wins, so Billy gets to take home a small silver cup as his prize. The hunt is scheduled during a particularly cold week, and many of the other hunters are forced to give up. However, Billy, who is used to mountain winters, is able to reach the final round. On the last night, Old Dan and Little Ann trap three raccoons in a single tree, but a sudden blizzard forces Billy to take shelter. The following morning, the dogs are found covered in ice but still circling the tree. All three raccoons are captured and Billy and his dogs win the championship and a $300 prize. One night while the trio is hunting, a mountain lion attacks the dogs. Billy fights to save his dogs, but the mountain lion turns on him. The dogs manage to save Billy by killing the mountain lion, but Old Dan later dies of his injuries. Over the next few days, Little Ann loses the will to live and finally dies of grief atop Old Dan's grave, leaving Billy heartbroken. Billy's father tries to comfort his son by explaining that he and Billy's mother have long wished to move to town where their children can get an education, but could not afford to do so without the extra money brought in by Billy's hunting. Knowing that Billy's dogs would suffer in town and that Billy would be devastated to leave them behind, they intended to allow Billy to live with his grandfather. Billy's father believes that God took the dogs as a sign that the family was meant to stay together. On his last day in the Ozarks, Billy visits Old Dan and Little Ann's graves and finds a giant red fern growing between them. Remembering a legend that only an angel can plant a red fern, Billy also comes to believe that perhaps there truly was a higher power at work. The adult Billy closes by saying that although he hasn't returned to the Ozarks, he still dreams of visiting his dogs' graves and seeing the red fern again one day. Films[edit]The novel was the basis of a 1974 film starring Stewart Petersen, James Whitmore, Beverly Garland, and Jack Ging. A sequel was released in 1992, starring Wilford Brimley, Chad McQueen, Lisa Whelchel, and Karen Carlson. The film was remade in 2003 and starred Joseph Ashton, Dabney Coleman, Ned Beatty and Dave Matthews.[2] Reception[edit]Although sales of the novel began slowly, by 1974 over 90,000 copies had been sold.[3] In 2001, Publishers Weekly estimated that it had sold 6,754,308 copies.[4] There is a statue of Billy and his dogs at the Idaho Falls Public Library.[5]  Where the Red Fern Grows Statue at the Idaho Falls, ID public library. Characters in the book[edit]
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Why is the setting important in Where the Red Fern Grows?The setting of Where the Red Fern Grows informs the way characters interact and what they can do, and Billy's character arc is dependent on the time and place where he grows up.
What year did Where the Red Fern Grows take place?The story starts in present day—meaning roughly the 1960s—but most of it takes place about a half-century earlier. We aren't given an exact date by Rawls, but get out your calculators and you'll see that the 1920s would be a safe guess, since there's talk of bootlegging and raccoon coats.
What time period is Where the Red Fern Grows written?Billy is growing up poor in the Ozarks during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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Setting for where the red fern grows
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