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Poor Knox cringes and begs for mercy. "Please, sir. I don't like this trick, sir." But Fox refuses to relent. "Here's an easy game to play," he whispers - but his wordplay is more than games. It's an assault on Knox's very sanity, and as the book progresses he slowly, cruelly tears the fabric of reality away from the defenseless Knox. An unending series of nightmare images parade by, reminiscent of brainwashing scenes in dystopias like 1984 and Clockwork Orange.


a giant crow sews Knox into a box


on the next page Fox tries to get him to chew the blue goo

Fox in Socks has been called Seuss's greatest tragedy. Its ending is irredeemably bleak. Fox succeeds in driving Knox mad - but in a final twist, the now-lunatic Knox turns against his tormenter and viciously murders him.



"Thank you," gibbers the raving Knox, "For a lot of fun, sir!" as the battling tweetle beetles advance on the trapped fox.

Make mad the guilty, and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears.
- Hamlet II.ii