Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl Review

I read Fantastic Mr. Fox as a child, but forgot everything about it from the plot to the characters. I picked it up out of curiosity of how it differs from Wes Andersen's film adaptation and fondness for the childhood memory of reading it. The story was really fun and whimsical despite it already being one of the less quirky ones written by Dahl, I can see why I loved his works so much when I was younger. 

However, there was far more nuance than I expected in between the short amount of pages this story consisted of. I found the pages when Badger asks Mr. Fox, "Doesn't this worry you just a tiny bit Foxy? [...] All this ... this stealing." to which Mr. Fox replies, "Do you know anyone in the whole world who wouldn't swipe a few chickens if his children were starving to death?" particularly interesting because it was the only moment in the story where there seemed to be a conscious choice to take a step back and question the group's actions as ethical or not. Despite Mr. Fox's response eventually persuading Badger that what they are doing is ethical, and even respectable, it is obvious that Mr. Fox is stretching the truth of their actions, as they are not simply swiping a "few" chickens to feed his children, but a large amount of food from all three men to provide a large feast for all the creatures underground. But Mr. Fox is very effective at immediately shutting the sheer possibility that their actions are questionable down, I wonder if Dahl purposely added this chapter to make Mr. Fox a morally questionable and “sly” character, he is a fox after all. 

Despite my predictions, there are no repercussions for their actions or even another moment of reprieve even by the end. Yes, Boggis, Bunce and Bean are evidently mean and horrible people, but at the end of the day, the animals are still committing theft. Does the animals' situation, or the men's devious intentions excuse their behavior? It’s interesting what comes to mind when reading children’s stories as an adult, I don’t even think this much about supposedly thought provoking literature sometimes.