The Yearling

The Baxters live in an isolated area surrounded by marshes, rivers, and dense forest, all teeming with animals. Hunting becomes a necessity to not only provide meat for the family but keep hungry predators away from the homestead and livestock. For Penny, hunting is a way to provide for his family and teach Jody about survival, but more than anything, hunting is a way for him to escape his past and live harmoniously with the natural world. Each time Penny takes Jody out for a hunt, he reveals more about his character and the way he thinks humans should live. Thus, hunting becomes Penny’s ethos and embodies his philosophical view of life. The narrative is scaffolded by several saga-like hunts which add a sense of adventure to the story, but also symbolize Jody’s development of filial piety to his parents.

Penny is a conservationist and despises killing for sport; he “[…] would shoot nothing for which he could not see a use” (256). At times, he uses his hunting trips to simply observe animals and learn more about how they interact with the land and other animals. He withholds shooting young animals, teaching Jody the economy of nature and the circle of life. Penny’s hunting philosophy also aligns with his rules for dealing with humans. He only causes harm to man or beast when one poses a threat to his family. Both Penny and Jody dislike watching animals die; Jody enjoys spending quality time with his father far more than their actual hunting. Jody wrestles with his physical need to eat animals and his love for them, yet the first time he makes a kill for food, he beams with pride. By apprenticing under his father, he learns that hunting is more than procuring food: The intricate process of stalking and harvesting game fosters respect for animals and connects humans to the natural world.

Jody participates in many symbolic hunts. The first hunt for Old Slewfoot ends in disaster, and Jody learns the value of having a dependable hunting dog. Hunting also allows Penny and Jody to develop a closer relationship with their neighbors, the Forresters. Though Penny’s rules for hunting differ from the rough band of brothers, he enjoys hunting with them, and Jody delights in being considered old enough to join the party. However, no hunt is more symbolic than the penultimate chase of Old Slewfoot, a pursuit that lasts for three days and allows Jody a new glimpse of his father. Old Slewfoot is a legendary predator who, like a fairy-tale dragon who plunders villages, has terrorized the inhabitants of the scrub for ages, robbing them of cattle and pigs. Rawlings anthropomorphizes the bear by giving it a nickname, and at times, Jody and the Forresters speak of him as if he’s human. After multiple tragedies befall the Baxters, and the bear takes their new calf, Penny projects his ire for the world’s injustices onto Old Slewfoot and vows to kill him, or die trying. This final hunt symbolizes man’s struggle against nature, as Penny hopes that by slaying the bear, he will somehow right all the wrongs that have befallen him. The hunt ends with Old Slewfoot dead and gutted, and Buck adorned in his skin, but the meat is stringy and inedible, and the Baxters’ problems don’t magically end. The struggle with nature rages on, and the truth remains that if humans desire to live in nature, they must contend with the wild creatures with whom they share it.