The Underneath

“Trees are the keepers of stories.”

Appelt introduces the theme of The Mystery and Power of the Forest, characterizing it as animated and aware. The trees not only observe the happenings in the forest, but they also keep a record of these events and are the moral arbiters of right and wrong, occasionally intervening in the lives of humans and animals.

“She felt the ache of it. Here was a song that sounded exactly the way she felt.”

Foreshadowing the bond between the cat and Ranger, the cat identifies with the loneliness of his song. They become family to one another and occupy the roles in each other’s lives that their respective human owners should have filled.

“One he caught one in a crab trap and kept it there, hidden, watched it slowly die from hunger and thirst. Watched it while it twisted against the wooden slats of the trap, desperate in its hunger, fierce in its desperation.”

Gar Face’s love of torturing animals as a child, such as the rat he trapped and watched die, characterize his cruelty, which continues into his adult life. The desperation of the dying rat, which Gar Face watched with indifferent interest, paints Gar Face as a sinister antagonist. This anecdote foreshadows his cruelty toward his hound Ranger, whom he steals from a loving home, shoots, kicks, and hits, and toward the calico cat, whom he drowns. Gar Face’s actions are central to the theme of Cruelty to Animals.

“No father has ever been prouder of his brood.”

Ranger becomes a surrogate father to the cat’s kittens, Puck and Sabine. His irrefutable role is evident in his pride for his beloved kittens. The immediate love and care he feels toward Puck and Sabine alludes to his continuing role in their lives. Their eventual triumph over the forces of evil around them will signal a victory of good over evil—and a victory of the natural world over human ignorance.

“The daughter who had been stolen. Taken from her while she slept. She thrashed her tail against the hard surface inside the jar. A priiiiicccce, she hissed. A price will be paid.”

As Grandmother reflects on her loss of Night Song, she whispers, sinisterly, about the price she’ll exact for this loss. This builds tension around how Grandmother will avenge Night Song as her release from the jar approaches. It turns out that Grandmother is a dynamic character, who—in a plot twist—ultimately chooses love and frees Ranger rather than harming anyone.

“Here was laughter hard and cruel. He carried them to his truck and stuffed them into a burlap bag, and tied it with a string. Then he tossed them into the bed of the pickup and started the engine. Ranger, awake now, fully awake, howled and howled, tugged at his terrible chain.”

Characterizing Gar Face’s cruelty is his hard and demonic laughter as he shoves the struggling cats into a sack, planning to drown them both. Ranger’s howling and tugging at the chain demonstrates his love for the cats and his determination to save them. This passage further characterizes Ranger as a hero—and as a character foil to Gar Face, whom the story quickly establishes as the antagonistic villain.

“A hummingbird! ‘He’s safe,’ said the tiny bird.”

The author establishes the hummingbird as a symbol of passage to death when it visits the mother cat as she dies and comforts her, assuring her that Puck survived. Although the hummingbird is associated with death, its words of assurance illustrate that it’s a kind and comforting presence. The narrative later reveals that this hummingbird is Night Song and Hawk Man’s daughter.

“The soughing trees used their own ancient magic to stir up the Zephyrs of Sleep. For trees, who see so much sorrow, so much anger, so much desperation, know love for the rare wonder of it, so they are champions of it and will do whatever they can to help it along its way.”

The story again presents the theme of The Mystery and Power of the Forest through the trees, who oversee the events of the forest and occasionally—as in this case—intervene to ensure that good triumphs over evil. The trees’ status as “champions of love” illustrates their moral goodness.

“A solitary bird watched, its dark eyes encroaching dusk. Then it spread its coppery wings and flew away.”

The copper wings of the bird that drops a mouse for Puck to eat alludes to Hawk Man’s continued presence in the woods. Like the trees, Hawk Man characterizes the forest and its inhabitants as ancient, powerful, and mysterious—and the novel establishes Hawk Man, also like the trees, as a good character who helps Puck survive.

“He chained the stupid hound to a post and left him there, left him in the fifty yard as a reminder. Do not trust a living soul. Do not.”

Gar Face feels betrayed by Ranger. While the author certainly doesn’t justify or condone Gar Face’s cruelty, the narrative suggests that those who are treated with unkindness and disrespect will treat others with unkindness and disrespect, through their own insecurity, fear, or conditioning. This anecdote recalls that Gar Face’s mother left, and his father beat him savagely. When viewed in light of these childhood traumas, his cruelty to Ranger can be interpreted as his way of keeping himself safe from further abandonment or hurt.

“As she paused, the words of the alligator ran through her mind. Does Night Song know the consequences? Does she know that if she steps into her viper skin, she can never be human again?”

The story presents the Alligator King as a morally righteous character in his insistence that Grandmother Moccasin must tell Night Song that she’ll never be able to be human again if she reassumes her serpent form. On the other hand, Grandmother initially appears as an antagonist because she deceives her beloved daughter. Appelt suggests that love lost can turn individuals bitter and vitriolic but later shows through Grandmother’s character arc that they can find redemption through kindness.

“Bereft of all substance, Night Song, beloved by the denizens of the deep, piney woods, and most of all by her husband and daughter, faded into air.”

Night Song dies because of Grandmother’s deception, further characterizing Grandmother as an antagonist. Appelt uses Grandmother’s scheming and Night Song’s resultant death to illustrate how love can turn to anger and bitterness.

“Each day his mother’s voice echoed in his ears. Promise. Promise you’ll go back.”

The author characterizes Puck as loyal and loving. His determination is evident in his resolve and attempts to return to his family, Sabine and Ranger. This scene foreshadows Puck’s appearance at the novel’s climax, when he saves Sabine and Ranger.

“It was a tiny rainbow, bouncing up and down, to and fro. He blinked. A hummingbird? He knew what a hummingbird meant. But whom had she come for? On the porch above, Gar Face saw the hummingbird too. He held his rifle against his sunburned cheek and looked through the crosshairs at the end of the barrel. He squeezed the trigger.”

The hummingbird’s symbolism is clear to characters like Ranger, who respect the power of the natural world. On the other hand, Gar Face’s ignorance shows when he sees the hummingbird and, not recognizing its appearance as a premonition of his own death that he should respect, shoots at it.

“A change was coming. Rain. A lot of rain.”

Unlike Gar Face, Sabine knows that a storm is coming, illustrating the innate intelligence of the animals. Furthermore, pathetic fallacy is present in the brewing storm. As pressure builds in the natural world grows to a climax, the characters’ lives mirror this pressure. Gar Face’s plan to use Ranger and Sabine as bait to kill the Alligator King approaches. Furthermore, Grandmother Moccasin’s jar continues to rise to the surface, foreshadowing her escape from that prison and further contributing to the tension and suspense.

“She did not see Ranger sink his teeth into Gar Face’s leg. But she heard the pain in the man’s voice. She also heard the anger. ‘You’ll pay, you blasted dog.’”

Ranger’s choice to sacrifice his own safety to ensure Sabine’s is a heroic act that illustrates his love for her. It results in Gar Face horrifically beating Ranger and dragging him to the bayou’s edge as bait for the alligator. These outcomes, which Ranger could have predicted, further emphasize the old hound’s heroism and his undoubted role as Sabine’s father.

“This very tree finally let go of the soggy earth that had held it all these years and leaned over.”

The narrative personifies the tree as deciding to let go of the earth and fall, further characterizing trees as imbued with the power to watch over the events of the forest and intervene when necessary. The tree’s falling allows Puck to cross the creek and rescue his family, further implying that the trees are the forest’s force of moral righteousness.

“She purred to him as hard as she could. She licked the side of his soft face, licked the blood off his nose, she put her nose next to his nose. She loved him as hard as she could. With all her might, she loved Ranger.”

Sabine’s brave decision to lie with Ranger after Gar Face chains him at the edge of the bayou as alligator bait foregrounds the theme of The Importance of Family. This quote illustrates Sabine’s adoration for Ranger, her adoptive father.

“Her stomach growled. She was hungry, but the man was too big even for her massive jaws. She would wait for something smaller.”

Grandmother Moccasin hungrily waits for her first meal in more than 1,000 years. She considers waiting for something smaller. Meanwhile, Sabine is at the base of the tree with Ranger, and Puck is approaching the tree. Narrative tension builds that Grandmother may feast on the kittens.

“All that zigging and zagging hypnotized him; he was entranced by it, spellbound. Without thinking, Puck climbed the old tree after it.”

Puck follows the hummingbird up the tree where Grandmother is waiting for a small meal. Tension rises as he does so given the chance that he’ll be eaten. However, Puck’s positioning allows him to leap to Sabine’s aid, confirming the hummingbird’s role as a character on the side of good. The narrative portrays the hummingbird, who is later revealed to be Night Song’s daughter, as a magical creature.

“He held onto the cat with one hand, dipped his other into the bayou and cupped the cool water onto his face, his burning face. He was blinded by the pain. Blood dripped into the water. He slowly opened his eyes. The last thing Gar Face ever saw was the open mouth of the Alligator King, waiting, waiting, waiting, there on the edge of the Bayou Tartine.”

The repetition of the word “waiting” emphasizes the immense patience of the Alligator King, who knows that human hunters eventually make mistakes. Fittingly, Gar Face, an antagonist who delighted in torturing animals, dies in the jaws of the Alligator King.

“When they looked upon their tiny twins curled up next to the old and tattered hound, they realized then and there that sleep was called for. So they did what they could and stirred up the old Zephyrs of Sleep, just as they had for Night Song and Hawk Man so long ago.”

Once again, the story references the theme of The Mystery and Power of the Forest through the trees, personifying them as altruistic observers and helpers of those in the forest who deserve their support. The trees protect Ranger, Puck, and Sabine during their sleep, ensuring that any predators are also sound asleep.

“She had interfered with love before and caused only sorrow. That, she knew, was the price. This time, she did what she could to help it along. She had snapped the chain in two, setting the old dog loose.”

In an unexpected plot twist, Grandmother is revealed as a dynamic character who chooses love by setting Ranger free, allowing the family to escape from the dangerous edge of the bayou and live happily together in the forest. Her sinister whispers about a price to be paid end up in a reflection on the fact that the price of interrupting love is sorrow. In a moment of poetic justice, Grandmother receives a happy ending for her altruistic action; in death, she’s reunited with her granddaughter.