The Midnight Fox

“‘I knew I wasn’t going to like camp, and I didn’t. I knew I wasn’t going to like figs, and I don’t. I knew I wasn’t—‘The trouble with you, Tommy, is that you don’t try to like new things.’ ‘You shouldn’t have to try to like things. You should just very easily, without even thinking about it at all, like them.’”

In this quote, Tom is arguing with his mom about the prospect of spending so much time at the farm. This scene highlights Tom’s binary thinking at the beginning of the story, as well as his narrow mindset; he simply “knows” he won’t like the farm and is using examples of his previous correct predictions to back up his argument. Tom’s mom points out that his unwillingness to try and enjoy new things is a problem, and this conflict forms the backbone of the story. Tom’s final reply is sassy, but it also underscores his attitude toward any situation that falls outside his comfort zone. If Tom isn’t sure that he’ll like something, he is sure he will hate it.

“I could not understand it myself completely. I just knew that I did not want to go, that I would never want to go, and that if I had to go, I would hate, loathe, and despise every minute of it.”

While Tom muses about his adventurous parents and knows that they will not understand why he doesn’t want to go to the farm, he realizes that he also doesn’t fully understand his own objection to the prospect. Tom’s conviction that he will hate the farm likely stems from insecurities and anxieties about going into a new environment without his best friend Petie, with whom he does everything. Tom and Petie are city kids who are happy in the city, and their inexperience with any other environment means that they have no desire to explore rural life.