The knight story in "Foxes"

The story about the knight that the narrator's daughter is telling in "Foxes" is a symbol of her parents' recent divorce and her wish to have her father back in her life. The knight in the story is running in the forest, vanquishing enemies (including the girl's mother who is depicted as an "inky shape" (87)) in order to "get back to his family" (74). This is the daughter's way of coping with her father's absence; imagining that he is gone not by choice but because of dark and violent circumstances, and that he will stop at nothing to return to her. In reality, he is away at work on an oil rig and making no effort to contact his child.