Stone Fox

These chapters surround the central theme of sacrifice and the family, which displays the range of different attitudes and approaches to devotion and care. Some characters are all willing to do everything in their power to protect the rest. This theme is most clear through Searchlight and Little Willy’s devotion to each other and the farm. Though Searchlight is not a dog, and Little Willy is certainly not a farmer, they inhabit roles that have left vacant by either an absent parental figure or by a financial lack. Gardiner writes of Searchlight, “She walked over and stood in front of the plow. In her mouth was the harness she wore during the winter when she pulled the snow sled” (11). This introduces the reader to the lengths to which Searchlight will go for Little Willy. Her devotion to him is similarly echoed when she protects him from Mr. Snyder; she initially refuses to leave the little boy’s side and has to be commanded to stay outside of the house. Searchlight ultimately gives her life for Willy; her “heart burst[s]” with the effort and strain from the run. This symbolic end also symbolizes the immense love and affection that Searchlight feels for Little Willy; the strength of her adoration and devotion ultimately leads to her end.