44 pages • 1-hour read
The Little Foxes
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Symbols & Motifs
The Lockbox
Horace’s lockbox, and its contents, symbolize the change of heart Horace experiences after spending five months away from his family. While the box contains the bonds, there is also a surprising array of family artifacts within the box. Leo, who catches a peek inside of it, recalls:
[R]ight next to them is a baby shoe of Zan’s and a cheap old cameo on a string, and, and—nobody’d believe this—a piece of an old violin […] A poem, I guess it is, signed with his mother’s name, and two old school books with notes. (33)
None of these items hold any sort of monetary value. Instead, they are priceless memories of his family and friends. The baby shoe represents his love and affection for his daughter. The poem is signed by his mother, who is presumed dead. The other items are not discussed or explored, but it is evident that they, too, hold a great deal of sentimental value. The simple and inexpensive nature of these items proves that the glamorous life Regina and her brothers seek is not as worthwhile as a life where one is loved.
Headaches
Birdie’s headaches are a motif that is threaded through from the very beginning of the play. The motif supports the theme of The Difficulties of Female Agency in The Little Foxes. When Birdie rushes into the parlor to search for a record to show Marshall, Oscar comes to collect her. He excuses her behavior, firmly stating, “My wife is a miserable victim of headaches” (10). He then proceeds to demand that she return to the dinner table and stop talking.
It is only in Act III that the real meaning behind the headaches is revealed. When Birdie starts talking about how Oscar only married her for her money, Alexandra and Addie worry she will give herself a headache. Birdie turns to her niece, and says, “I’ve never had a headache, Zan. That’s a lie they tell for me. I drink. All by myself, in my own room, by myself, I drink” (60). Birdie finally speaks the truth about her life and the alcohol dependency she uses as a coping mechanism for her husband’s abuse, and in doing so warns Alexandra of following in her footsteps. The headaches are not only a literal tool of controlling Birdie, but are also a symbolic reminder of how trapped she really is in her marriage. As with all of the women in the play, the men speak and make decisions for Birdie, treating her as an object or a commodity instead of a person.
Shooting
The motif of shooting in The Little Foxes reinforces the theme of The Isolation of Greed and its wastefulness. Oscar’s habit of shooting for sport is first mentioned after Marshall leaves and Birdie is asked what she wants now that they will be millionaires. Birdie replies, “I want you to stop shooting. I mean so much. I don’t like to see animals and birds killed just for the killing. You only throw them away—” (18, emphasis added). Just as Oscar shoots animals and birds for the sake of it, the family treats other people the same way. The shooting deprives the working classes of food by greedily killing more animals than needed for sport, while the family deprives the poor of a working wage in order to make more money than they know what to do with.
Oscar’s shooting also ushers in some foreshadowing in Act II, when Oscar notably misses his daily shooting. He observes, “[It’s the] [f]irst day I missed since I had a head cold. First day I missed in eight years” (30). This is the same day that Horace arrives back at the house and threatens to upend the siblings’ plot to invest in a cotton mill, suggesting that the family’s greed and wastefulness will no longer continue unchecked.
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