Jim Kjelgaard was a prolific author of over forty novels for children and young adults, mostly animal stories. His most famous and best-selling book was Big Red, the story of an orphan boy and his beloved Irish setter.
The main character in The Black Fawn is also an orphaned boy, Allan “Bud” Sloan. Bud comes to live with Gramps and Gram Bennett in an attitude of guarded fear and determination.
“With his little bundle of belongings wrapped in a spare shirt and tucked under his right arm–the orphanage did not furnish suitcases when they farmed you out–Bud started up the drive with his head held high and with what he hoped was a fearless, manly tread. But his insides felt like jelly that has stood too long in a warm place and his feet seemed to weigh five hundred pounds each. If he had been sure no one was looking, he would have burst into tears. He could not be sure, and not for an instant must he forget that weakness made him easy prey for whoever saw it.”
Slowly, over the course of the novel, Bud responds to the open-hearted love and care of Gram Bennett and the measured and careful teaching and example of Gramps, and the three become a family even as Bud learns to be a man. The black fawn is something of a touchstone that Bud first saves when the fawn is almost orphaned in infancy, and then watches in brief glimpses as he grows to be a mighty buck that Bud reluctantly hunts along with Gramps.
So the book showcases the love of animals, but also the thrill of hunting and the satisfaction to be found in farming and animal husbandry. Bud learns “the ways of nature and the meaning of true sportsmanship.” It’s a balanced view of all three of these ways that man interacts with nature and the animal world.
I’m just starting a re-read of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small, and I couldn’t help comparing the two books. Herriot’s Yorkshire farmers care for their animals, but they also know that farm animals are meant to be of use, sometimes for food. The attitude in Kjelgaard’s story is the same. The deer are meant to be respected and admired for their beauty and animal sense, but also to be hunted for food and for sport as well. Gramps sees the black buck as a magnificent and wily adversary, and himself as an elder with lessons worth teaching to young Bud. Some of those lessons come through the medium and process of deer hunting.
The ending to the story is perfect for hunters and animal lovers both, although animal welfare activists and vegetarians might not love it so much. Kjelgaard balances a respect for wildlife and nature with a deep appreciation for the sport of hunting and the lessons that it teaches. This blog post by Daniel Schmidt, a deer hunter, explicates the basic idea contained in this story: Humble Appreciation: A Deer Hunter’s Prayer.
