The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Rhetorical devices, particularly epigram, paradox, and oxymoron, continue to play a major role in the characters’ expressions of wisdom and observations about life as this central section of the book progresses. As before, these create life lessons and new perspectives for the characters and the reader. After the boy, the mole, and the fox meet the horse, the boy realizes, “Doing nothing with friends is never doing nothing” (47). This is another example of Mackesy’s use of paradoxes in order to highlight alternative or deeper meanings. The illustrations depict the characters playing and having fun together, emphasizing that “doing nothing” together is building bonds and is meaningful. Their trust and affection grow during this period, and this is not “nothing.” Likewise, the horse offers several epigrammatic reflections on life, including his statement that “Tears fall for a reason and they are your strength not weakness” (53). The horse makes this more explicit by saying he was strongest “When [he] dared to show [his] weakness” (56). It is significant that these words are spoken by the horse, the biggest and strongest of the characters: Again, the text again creates a paradox, contradicting traditional ideas about the relationship between vulnerability and courage.

The statements made by the boy and the fox continue to affirm The Challenge of Seeing Our Own Worth. The boy expresses the “worry [that they’ll] all realise [he’s] ordinary,” suggesting that he doesn’t deserve their love unless he’s extraordinary (58). He doesn’t recognize his own value, that his inherent worth makes him worthy of their love or that the love and acceptance he offers them makes him even more deserving. Along these same lines, he asks the group, “So you know all about me? […] And you still love me?” as though knowing “all” about him should lead to a withdrawal of love (75). Again, the boy’s concern betrays his suspicion and fear that he lacks value, that his friends’ love will be withheld once they really know him. He realizes that they “believe in [him] more than [he does]” because it is so much easier, sometimes, to see others’ significance than it is to see one’s own (77). We often compare ourselves to others, giving in to self-doubt, while never knowing how they really feel about themselves. Like the illustration of the swans gliding on the lake, who seem “so together and perfect,” but whose legs engage in “frantic paddling […] beneath” the water’s surface, we see only what others show us (68). This echoes the mole’s earlier words that comparing oneself to others is a waste of time and is part of the book’s patterning and layering of repeated ideas for effect. Similarly, when the boy points out that the fox never speaks, the fox confesses, “To be honest, I often feel I have nothing interesting to say” (79). Others are interesting to him, as he cites his three friends as his “reason to keep going,” but he obviously feels he has little to offer in return (60). It is the horse who points out how “lovely [it is that] he is with [them]” regardless of his silence, reassuring him that honesty is always interesting (78). Like the boy, the fox doubts his own value, perhaps the result of his past experiences, but the horse gently reminds him, as he and the mole remind the boy. These reciprocal patterns underscore the story’s simple message of acceptance, of the self and others.

This dynamic also points to The Value of Friendship. Though the boy and fox doubt their own worth, the horse and the mole consistently affirm it. For example, when the horse jumps over a stream and the boy falls in, the horse says, “You fell—but I’ve got you” (51). The physical and emotional support the horse provides allows the boy to cry and to accept help and love, as depicted by the illustrations of the horse pulling him from the water and nuzzling him gently (52-53). At the end of the first section of text, the boy says he feels lost, and the mole reassures him that “love brings you home” (41). Now, the horse says everyone needs “a reason to keep going,” asking what his friends’ reasons are: The fox says it’s the other three; the boy says it’s “getting home,” and the mole says, “cake” (60). However, the mole immediately amends his claim, saying hugs are best because they last longer. Although each character answers differently, the story suggests that they accept one another’s answer as equally valid and expressive of individuality, supporting The Value of Friendship. The illustrations also suggest that this is a significant turning point in the story: While most of the illustrations provide close-ups of the characters, one outlier depicts the four far off in the distance, set against a sizable landscape (66). This illustration suggests that the emotional connection of friendship can help us to realize our own value and to make sense of a big, sometimes scary, world.

Likewise, the horse feels empowered by his friends’ acceptance to reveal a secret he has not yet shared: He can fly, but he stopped because other horses got jealous. Now, however, feeling the support of his friends who “love [him] whether [he] can fly or not,” he unfurls his beautiful wings (81). A two-page illustration portrays a dark night, with only the white horse illuminated—his friends in shadow on his back—as he begins to run and takes off into the air. The book suggests that love frees the horse to be his true self, and to embrace his whole identity. The chiaroscuro of the illustration shows the horse as if lit from within, suggestive of joyfulness. The following illustrations that depict the friends running together across two musical staffs draw on a visual musical metaphor, suggesting that the friends can produce “music” together that none of them can make alone. These hopeful illustrations and words emphasize the book’s message of the power of connection as the story moves into its final phase.