Friendship
The overarching theme of the story is quite clearly the value of friendship. Peter and Pax may be two completely different species, but they share a bond that is as close as family members. The decision enforced upon them to be split apart as the result of events beyond their control is portrayed as appropriately heartbreaking and becomes the stimulus for testing the limits of friendship. Not surprising, the test results conclude that while there is a limit, even that limitation becomes an act of friendship.
War, What is it Good For?
Surprisingly, perhaps, this is a children’s book in which a very real war between humans plays a significant part in the narrative. It is this war which initiates the rationale for Peter and Pax having to be separated. Throughout the narrative and its focus on the odyssey which ultimately reunites the two friends the war intrudes to make lie difficult. Details are never fully provided as to who is battling with whom or why they are engaged. In this way, one of the underlying theme explored in the novel is the collateral damage that is caused by war regardless of the justifications and rationale for going to war.
Nature Versus Nurture
The book is about the friendship between a human and a fox. And that friendship is nurtured to the point that both species are devastated by the action of being ripped apart from each other. Although great pains are made to reunited, ultimately it becomes clear that no matter how much a relationship can be nurtured simply by the desire to overcome the distance between, nature always rears its head. A human is a human and a fox is a fox and neither really and truly belongs in the world of the other. Despite the desire to transcend nature, the true act of friendship becomes recognition that while nature can perhaps be overcome, it is almost never a good thing. Friendship and loyalty and love does not make a fox any more at home in the world of humans than a human would be in the world of foxes.
