In our culture, animals are used, represented, and thought of in a variety of ways. One of the animals that is represented in American culture is the fox. Generally, foxes are used as symbols to represent something that is cunning, strategic, quick-thinking, adaptable, clever or wise. Usually the animal is used as a complete statement; but they can also lend individual traits to characters in order to convey a certain mood in respect to the character. For instance, in comic books, the characters are reduced to two-dimensional images and in order to fill out the character more, stereotypes are used. These generalizations can be based off of physique, hair, posture, clothing, artifacts, and especially facial features. Comics veteran Will Eisner often used the technique in caricature where the renderings were based on animals. By giving the characters animal like features (like the narrowness of the face etc.) the viewers are able to cast all of their connotations of that animal onto the person. This is beneficial in the fact that it helps to develop the character and sometimes helps to understand what the character's intensions are. If a man in a story has an angular face, similar to that of a fox's face, the characters will subconsciously feel like the specific character is cunning.
In a more literal and direct way, the actual animal may be used. A popular children's television show, "Dora The Explorer," has included a fox in the cartoon cast. Swiper is a clever and sneaky fox who tries to steal important objects. Although he usually gets caught, the traits that usually are connected to the fox appear in this show. It is also possible that the younger generation may correlate foxes with sneaky and mischivious characteristics. Lastly, Mozilla Firefox has a logo with a fox. If they wanted to represent their software right, they needed to choose something that would get people thinking and something that could lend its stereotypes to be adopted by the software. Firefox is known for being quick, innovative, and easily adaptable for every person--similar to the fox's qualities of being quick-thinking, strategic and adaptable. The list goes on but with every case, the fox is used to maintain and take advantage of the stereotype that it has been given by our culture.
In a more literal and direct way, the actual animal may be used. A popular children's television show, "Dora The Explorer," has included a fox in the cartoon cast. Swiper is a clever and sneaky fox who tries to steal important objects. Although he usually gets caught, the traits that usually are connected to the fox appear in this show. It is also possible that the younger generation may correlate foxes with sneaky and mischivious characteristics. Lastly, Mozilla Firefox has a logo with a fox. If they wanted to represent their software right, they needed to choose something that would get people thinking and something that could lend its stereotypes to be adopted by the software. Firefox is known for being quick, innovative, and easily adaptable for every person--similar to the fox's qualities of being quick-thinking, strategic and adaptable. The list goes on but with every case, the fox is used to maintain and take advantage of the stereotype that it has been given by our culture.