Plog: 'Red Fox'

In Red Fox, Margaret Atwood uses the analogy of a starving fox to comment on means of survival, and how human nature can turn itself around completely for the sake thereof. In terms of human nature, Atwood addresses the connotations that this has for relationships bewteen parents and children.
Throughout the first four stanzas, the poem remains relatively concrete, following the speaker's description of a fox crossing a frozen pond in winter. The speaker observes how desperate and hungry the fox appears, "Its winter and slim pickings", she says, "I can see the ribs, the sly trickster eyes, filled with longing and desperation, the skinny feet adept at lies". It is notable that this could almost be the description of a person, particularly with the word 'feet' used, rather than 'paws'.
In the fifth stanza, which is longer than the others, the poem becomes less literal and more abstract, as Atwood expouses on human nature. She admits there are mothers who are "squeezing their breasts dry, pawning their bodies", and "shedding their teeth for their children", but she also reminds us that "Hansel and Gretel were dumped in the forest becuase their parents were starving", and "to survive, we'd all turn thief". She is pointing out that human nature will always turn seeming selfless people into thieves, when their survival is at stake. The last two stanzas bring the poem back to the fox, and we see that the fox is a symbol for just such a person.