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Like a Fox in a Hole, Jun 1932
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Life After Life, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Life, Reincarnation, and Alternate Possibilities
Fate vs. Choice
Family and Love
War and Death
Gender Roles and Expectations
Summary
Analysis
Ursula punches Howie in the face. He protests that he only wanted a kiss, saying he wasn’t trying to “rape her or anything.” Maurice calls Howie and he runs off. Ursula thinks that this is “a small triumph for her new womanhood.” She finds Teddy’s ball and returns it to him.
Atkinson demonstrates how Ursula evades her fate with Derek not by avoiding him, but by preempting Howie’s aggressive kiss instead, therefore preventing her rape as well. Thus, Atkinson draws a connection from the way in which young women are subjugated with violence when they are young, to how this behavior becomes normalized and expected when they grow up.
Themes
