The Yearling Themes

The Yearling Themes

Strength and Skill

In the world of The Yearling, having skills and being strong aren't just cool bonuses to make you look extra good in your selfies—they're pretty much essential to survival. If you can't hunt effe...

Family

Imagine you were stuck with your family in a little cabin, all by yourselves, with no TV, Internet, or phones. Now imagine you had to depend on them for your survival. Yeah—families are super imp...

Courage

Bravery is kind of a given if you're trying to make it in the harsh scrub forest. You've got your wild animals, your crazy weather, your complete lack of emergency services… And it's not like you...

Coming of Age

Growing up is hard to do, especially when it means having to take over your family's corn-planting and wildlife-killing duties rather than just moving into a dorm room and getting a meal plan. In T...

Appearances

Don't judge a book by its cover, it's what's inside that counts, yadda, yadda, yadda. We've heard it all before and it's all good advice and let's face it: we all consistently ignore it and then sp...

Man and the Natural World

When you live out in the middle of the scrub forest, things are going to get ugly. But then sometimes they're also going to be heart-stoppingly beautiful. The characters in The Yearling have a love...

Life

Like most good books, The Yearling saves its big punches for the end. In this case, we get hammered like Jody in a brawl with the Forresters: life is hard. Sure, we experience all the harsh-itude t...

Duty

Duty to your country, duty to your family, duty to yourself—take your pick. There are plenty of duties to go around, even if it's not a word that we hear much of these days. In The Yearling, thou...

Mortality

Maybe you learned when your beloved pet died, or when a grandparent died, or maybe you've only read about it in books, but either way the fact remains: we're all going to die. Yes, even you. Luckil...