Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
Tropedia
Tropedia
158,422
pages
in: Work, Xenofictional Literature, Children's Literature,
and 2 more

Runt (novel)

Sign in to edit
Farm-Fresh balanceYMMV • Transmit blueRadar • WikEd fancyquotesQuotes • (Emoticon happyFunny • HeartHeartwarming • Silk award star gold 3Awesome) • RefridgeratorFridge • GroupCharacters • Script editFanfic Recs • Skull0Nightmare Fuel • Rsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out iconShout Out • MagnifierPlot • Gota iconoTear Jerker • Bug-silkHeadscratchers • HelpTrivia • WMG • FilmRoll-smallRecap • RainbowHo Yay • Photo linkImage Links • Nyan-Cat-OriginalMemes • Haiku-wide-iconHaiku • Laconic • Library science symbol Source • Setting

A children's novel by Marion Dane Bauer.

In a forest in Minnesota, four wolf pups are born. Their mother names them for the potential she sees in them, and the pack celebrates the arrival of its newest members. Then a fifth pup is born. Though he is unique in that he has his father's coat, he is small and weak. His father cannot see any outstanding feature to name him after, so he is simply named Runt, although his mother reassures him that someday he will have a better name to live by. His mother shows more affection towards him than his father does, though it is clear that his family does love him. As Runt grows, he struggles to find his place in the pack and earn a new name.

Tropes used in Runt (novel) include:
  • Animal Talk
  • Eye Scream: Thinker's eye is pierced by a porcupine quill. The pup dies of infection shortly afterward.
  • Humans Are Cthulhu: Played with. Most of the wolves feel this way, and when Runt realizes that his actions have probably resulted in his brother's death (and has a face full of porcupine needles besides), he goes to a human house because he wants death. The humans care for him instead, removing his porcupine quills, but after he returns to the pack, they mostly refuse to interact with him because he's been around humans. Later on, Bider kills a cow and convinces Runt to try to get the pack to eat it. The pack refuses to join the meal because the cow was owned by humans; Bider himself goes back to eat it. Turns out it's poisoned, and a very good reason to stay away from humans.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: How Bider feels. He used to be the leader of his pack, but he was driven out, forced to beg for a position in a different pack, and now he simply is biding his time to try and usurp King, thus the name he has in this pack.
  • Meaningful Name: Each wolf is named for its position in the pack or a feature that stands out about them, such as King, Hunter, Helper, Sniffer, Silver, and Thinker.
  • Meaningful Rename: In the end, Runt is renamed Singer for his voice, and this signifies that he has truly earned his place in the pack.
  • Ravens and Crows: The pack is friends with a raven that enjoys chatting with them.
  • Runt
  • Spring Is Late: The first line of the book says that spring comes late to Minnesota.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Runt only wants to please his father, King.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More Tropedia