Fantastic Mr. Fox — Chapter 18

About This Passage

Dahl places the whole chapter in the passage above because the chapter is already nearly its entire length. The rain, the guns, the word 'brute' — every detail contrasts with the feast in Chapter 17. The farmers speak of a fox who is 'famished' and will 'dash' from the hole, but the reader knows Mr Fox is neither famished nor dashing — he is at a table with twenty-nine animals. This is dramatic irony: the reader knows more than the characters, and the gap between what they know and what the reader knows is where the chapter's meaning lives.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 18 in five to six sentences. Begin with the farmers sitting by the hole with their guns and describe the rain. Quote what each of the three men says. Then explain the narrator's last line — 'And so far as I know, they are still waiting' — and what that line reveals about how Dahl wants the reader to feel when the book closes.

Discussion Questions

1. The chapter opens with Boggis, Bunce, and Bean sitting in the rain with guns on their laps, while Mr Fox is feasting underground with twenty-nine animals. Dahl deliberately cuts between the two worlds without showing them together. What in the story tells you the author wants the reader to compare these two scenes? How does the comparison help you understand who has won and who has lost?
2. Bunce calls Mr Fox a 'brute' and says he must be 'famished.' But the reader knows from Chapter 17 that Mr Fox is full of cider and succulent food. What does Bunce's choice of the word 'brute' reveal about how the three farmers view animals? How does Dahl show you that the farmers have never really understood who Mr Fox is?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide