Fiction

The settings in “Mr. Fox” are fluid and frequently change frequently. At one point, Fox and Mary live in London, while at another point without warning, they live in New York, while at another point they are close to the shore. Likewise, the fluidity of the settings in the novel speak to fiction itself being a setting –the imagined and created realm that Fox has brought into existence. As such, the settings based on real-world places change and shift as needed by the story, as does the fictional realm that Fox and Mary, and Fox and his invented characters, inhabit. This blurs the lines between reality and fiction in general, and underscores themes of reality and creation to confuse readers, just as Fox, Daphne, and Mary come to be confused by the fluidity of fiction: there is not necessarily any solid ground on which to firmly stand.

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