How is the theme of humanism demonstrated within Chapter 8, entitled The Foxes Begin to Starve?

The narrator goes to great lengths in Chapter 8 to communicate to the reader the great pain involved with true hunger. When the Small Foxes ask their parents when they will next be able to eat since they are so hungry, Mr. and Mrs. Fox are both quiet, since there is "no answer to give" (31). Heart-wrenching passages such as this one clearly demonstrate the theme of humanism.