62 pages • 2 hours read
John Reynolds GardinerStone Fox
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1980A 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.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaChapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Reason”
The man on the porch is Clifford Snyder, a tax collector, and he points a gun at Searchlight when she attempts to protects Little Willy. Willy intervenes, and Snyder demands that Searchlight stay outside. He is visibly afraid of her. He keeps his gun drawn until he and Willy are in Grandfather’s room. Grandfather acts distressed and refuses to communicate through hand signals. Snyder insists that Grandfather has not been paying his taxes. Willy believes that they have paid every bill, as he has continued to do so.
Willy fetches the letters he found in Grandfather’s box and shows them to Snyder. They owe the government $500. Snyder threatens to seize the farm if they are unable to pay it.
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Way”
Little Willy is determined to fix the situation and pay the government the $500. Doc Smith still believes that Willy should come and live with her and let Mrs. Peacock take care of Grandfather. Willy refuses, but he understands now what taxes are for; Doc Smith explains that taxes are for the state so that the government can continue to care for the people. Willy wonders why they should pay the government when his grandfather was the one to help him when his mother died. Willy still struggles with the concept, but he dresses up in his suit and tie to meet the president of the bank, Mr. Foster.
Mr. Foster suggests that Willy sell the farm before the government seizes it. Willy leaves the meeting extremely disappointed but wanting to find another way to fix the situation. Willy is uncertain what to do and speaks with everyone in town about what he should do. Everyone agrees that he should sell the farm. When Willy finally speaks to Grandfather, his “fingers twitched. But that was all” (20).
Little Willy sees the poster for the National Dogsled Races while he is in Lester’s General store. The race is open to all types and numbers of dogs; it is a 10-mile race that starts and ends in front of the old church on Main Street where Willy and Searchlight race every day. The cash prize is $500. Lester gives the poster to Willy and mentions that the Indigenous man named Stone Fox with five Samoyed dogs might be coming; Stone Fox has never lost a race.
Willy shows Grandfather the poster and is determined that they will not lose the farm. Grandfather sheds a tear, and Searchlight barks as Willy hugs him hard.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Stone Fox”
The next day, Willy goes to Mayor Smiley and demands entry. The entrance fee is $50. Mayor Smiley and Mr. Foster both try to discourage Willy from entering the race, but the boy is determined. Little Willy is confident that him and Searchlight will win the race. They know five miles of the racecourse like the back of their hand, and the other five are mostly straight. Willy then notices five beautiful Samoyed dogs. They are pulling the Indigenous man named Stone Fox, who has a tall, heavy build. Willy thinks he is a giant. Stone Fox does not speak to Willy.
The town drunk, Dusty, spreads rumors of Stone Fox’s strength and violence at Lester’s General Store. It is there that Willy discovers that “no white man had ever heard Stone Fox talk” (26) as a protest of the treatment Indigenous people have suffered at their hands. White settlers forced Stone Fox’s people, the Shoshone, out of Utah and into a reservation in Wyoming. Stone Fox has been using the prize money from the races to purchase land back for his people. Willy and Searchlight practice in the 10-mile track every day, and they only see Stone Fox practicing once. Willy is determined to win against the other eight contestants.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In this section of the novel, a curious divide forms between the characters: There are those who are desperate for help and those who ultimately fail to provide any assistance. Those who are desperate for help are victims of society and institutions around them. Helplessness is an omnipresent theme throughout the entirety of the novel. Be it the townspeople, institutional racism and the effects of colonialism, or the self-serving ways most individuals view animals, the world around them has failed Little Willy, Stone Fox, and Searchlight.
Though people like Doc Smith and Lester often encourage Willy, neither offer him any tangible help. Mr. Foster, the banker, likewise fails to provide Willy with a loan or any alternatives through which he can pay the government and save their farm. This theme of helplessness is especially ironic in light of the conversation Doc Smith has with Willy. She explains to him that government receives taxes, as it is supposed to take care of them. Neither the government nor the townspeople take care of Willy and his grandfather when they encounter hard times. Help ultimately shows itself in the form of a brutal race where Willy and Searchlight go head-to-head with other people who similarly need the money due to institutional failings. Most notable of these is Stone Fox, who uses the money to purchase land for his people; land that colonizers stole.
Minorities, children, and animals are among the disenfranchised within this novel. Those who are able to help fail to do so. Instead, Stone Fox and Searchlight end up sacrificing for, and helping, Willy.
