Pax

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Chapters 19-21

Chapters 22-24

Chapters 25-28

Chapters 29-34

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Peter cries in the car en route to his grandfather’s house, as he travels with Pax and his father. Pax tries to comfort his boy because he isn’t sure why Peter is crying. Peter yells and pleads with his father.

They stop the car, and Peter leads Pax out of the vehicle; he takes out a toy soldier—Pax’s favorite toy: “The fox came to alert, ready for the familiar game. His boy would throw the toy and he would track it down” (4). Peter throws the soldier, as he’s done many times before. Pax runs after the toy, and Peter and his father drive away. Pax does not understand: “Whatever his boy needed—protection, distraction, affection—he would have offered” (5). Peter yells Pax’s his name as his father speeds away. Pax is convinced that Peter will return and meet him at the exact same spot.

Chapter 2 Summary

Peter’s father drops him off at his grandfather’s house and heads off to fight in the war. The grandfather helps Peter settle in and then leaves Peter to his own devices. Peter explores the room and finds a cookie tin. Inside the tin is a picture of Peter’s dad at 10 or 11 years old with one arm around a dog. He tells his grandfather he never knew his dad had a dog. The older man replies that Peter’s father and the dog were inseparable.

Peter muses on this: “Inseparable. He hadn’t missed the note of pride that had entered his grandfather’s voice as he said that” (14). He then reflects on his dead mother and remembers a moment in their old garden where he and his mother set a trap for a baby rabbit that was eating his mother’s tulips. The trap wasn’t supposed to kill the rabbit, just ensnare it. However, while the rabbit was stuck there in the trap, coyotes came out and scared it to death. Both mother and son were devastated: “They were just tulips, only a few tulips” (17), his mother had said.

This memory forces Peter to think about right and wrong, and Peter decides that he shouldn’t have left Pax. He looks at an atlas and decides to go after Pax. If he cuts straight across the foothills instead of following the highway, he realizes he’ll save a good deal of time and many miles. He packs his backpack, bringing sweatshirts, a fleece jacket, garbage bags, and a few other things. He also adds something that belonged to his mother: “a gold bracelet with an enameled phoenix charm she’d worn every day” (21).

He leaves a note for his grandfather, which reads: “I left early. Wanted to get a good head start. See you tonight. Thanks for everything—Peter” (22).

Chapter 3 Summary

Pax waits on the side of the road lost and confused. The first sign of comfort and hope is seeing something that reminds him of Peter—acorns: “The familiar scent seemed a promise to him now and he trotted to it” (25). Pax knows he is close to Peter’s original home but decides to resist the temptation to go back, deciding to stay in the same spot to wait for Peter.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

Peter thinks about the depth of his connection with Pax and how sometimes to the two of them seem to merge and become one being with one soul. Peter remembers Pax as a baby:

The kit had seen a bird and had strained against the leash, trembling as though electrified. And Peter had seen the bird through Pax’s eyes—the miraculous lightning flight, the impossible freedom and speed (14).

Pax also refers to Peter as “his human” the same way Peter refers to Pax as “his fox.” The two belong to each other. This merging becomes increasingly significant in later chapters and becomes one of Pennypacker’s signature motifs.

In Chapter 3, Pax reflects on Peter finding him in the den; the only surviving fox of his siblings. Peter remembers a baby rabbit he wasn’t able to save, and how that failure served as impetus for him to save Pax as a baby. In the present, the memory also helps Peter decide to find Pax. Peter connects to all animals and sees the life of even a single animal as sacred. This attitude is in sharp contrast to the adults headed to war, setting Peter apart from other humans.