Peter’s connection to Pax
Peter’s connection to Pax, the magical realism aspect of the novel in which it is described how Peter and Pax become one and the same and can sense each other’s pain and well-being, is a representation of the connection between man and the nature. Peter is a young boy, unspoiled from the vices and evil of the world, which makes him closer to nature and have a closer emphatic understanding of other living beings. Despite discovering about the evil humans are capable of, the falseness and pretending nature of them, Pax is determined that his boy is not like that, which confirms the notion that animals can sense the true nature of humans.
The toy soldier
To trick Pax before leaving him behind in the forest, Peter throws his favorite toy soldier far away for him to retrieve it. Pax is determined to protect this toy soldier before his boy returns to him. At the end, after the two reunite and Peter realizes that Pax belongs with the other foxes, he throws the toy soldier once again. The toy is a symbol of the connection between the boy and the fox.
Vola’s wooden puppets
Vola reveals the meaning behind the wooden puppets that she made. She made them as a symbol of her penance. After killing a man in war, she discovered a book in his pocket, a book about Sindbad. The wooden puppets are meant for telling the story about Sindbad, which is her way of asking for forgiveness. They are also a burden that constantly remind her of that dark past.
Phoenix rising from the ashes
After learning about Vola’s trauma and grief, and her wish to find herself again, Peter creates a wooden stage for a play for Vola. He presents the play to her, and it tells her story from being a young girl loving peaches to a soldier going to war, unaware of what the war truly is. At the end, Peter shows Vola burning and rising from the ashes like a phoenix and beginning a new life. This is what she does at the end. She burns her wooden leg and replaces it with a real prosthetic one. She takes her puppets into a library to donate them and promises to come by to teach the kids.
