Like Ike McCaslin of Faulkner's "The Bear," Billy becomes an expert at hunting a powerful, mysterious, elusive beast. Both boys must become students of nature and of ancient values before their goals can be realized.

The first section of the novel may also remind readers of Jack London's White Fang (1906) and the scene in which Billy shoots the she-wolf to protect her from further suffering has some of the same power as the scene in which George shoots Lenny in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1937).

The Crossing is also very much in the tradition of American frontier literature, especially Westerns, and it even has some elements in common with the epic and with tragedy. Like King Lear, Billy makes some unwise decisions and loses nearly everything he loves.