Scary Stories for Young Foxes

Although their childhood lives with their families are very different, Uly and Mia are both able to trust the adult figures in their lives to protect and nurture them. Mia’s first sense of betrayal comes at the hands of Miss Vix, not because her teacher is at fault for the illness that stole her reason but because she is forced to realize that even those who provide safety and constancy can become compromised by forces outside their control. This scene demonstrates the true horror that ensues when a previously trusted source of safety suddenly transforms into a source of peril and death in the blink of an eye. In this scene, Heidicker employs a classic technique of the horror genre by creating a sense of “the uncanny”—a situation in which something familiar and safe unexpectedly becomes something dangerous and strange. In this moment, Mia and her siblings do not yet have the psychological tools to adapt quickly to the changing situation and act in their own best interests. Confronted with a dangerous adult whom they fail to perceive as dangerous, most of the kits pay for their inexperience with their lives.

As the storyteller cautions her listeners before introducing Uly to the story, some adults—like Miss Vix—are only destructive and dangerous because they cannot help it, while others are wicked by their very nature. Those who are truly callous and cruel have no regard for the customs and expectations that define social parameters such as familial ties and loyalty. This dynamic becomes evident in the way that Mr. Scratch turns his daughter Ava against her brother and in the way that Ava recruits her sisters to follow her lead, thereby compounding the psychological harm that befalls Uly. Uly and Mia, along with the young foxes who later hear their story, are forced to confront the fact that there are few protections in place to limit the damage that a truly evil, devious person might cause. Heidicker does not delve too deeply into the potential inappropriateness of Mr. Scratch’s attraction to Mia despite her young age, but the frequent mention of her youth relative to the typical age at which he acquires “wives” hints at the predatory dangers that devious and depraved individuals can potentially pose to those who are too young to understand the situation. Thus, Mr. Scratch is clearly meant to model the threats posed to young children in real life by dangerous, calculating adults and sexual predators.

Mia and Uly also learn that sometimes, even when adults want to protect each other, their children, or the young individuals in their care, they may be powerless to defend themselves against dangerous adults or uncontrollable circumstances. For example, Mia comes to resent her mother for making her abandon her siblings in the Eavey Wood because Mia holds onto the wistful hope that not all of her siblings have been infected with the yellow sickness. More worldly than her daughter, Mia’s mother makes the choice to abandon her other kits because she holds onto the hope that at least one of her children will survive if she can get her to safety. When Mia’s mother opts to leave her behind at Miss Potter’s cottage, it is only because she believes that Mia is dead. Ultimately, Mia is forced to reconcile her disappointment that her mother gave up hope on her so quickly. Likewise, Uly is so distressed by the thought that his mother might pick his sisters over him that he sacrifices himself so that he will not have to learn what her decision would have been. Later, he must contend with the fact that his mother, though courageous in her ability to escape their father and raise her kits to the best of her ability, is powerless to fight against their father’s tyranny and has resigned herself to remaining in his kingdom despite the mortal peril that her kits are enduring thanks to Mr. Scratch’s evil ways.