Jean Craighead George highlights Frightful’s conflict between her wild instincts and her bond with Sam throughout the novel. Instinct functions as a motif that supports the theme The Beauty and Wonder of Nature; animals know exactly what to do to survive. It also works with the theme of The Balance of Nature in that animals’ hunting instincts contribute to maintaining this balance.

As Frightful experiences life without Sam for the first time, she must reconnect with her falcon instincts to survive. She gradually learns to hunt, mate, and be a mother as her instincts strengthen, such as when her nesting instinct tells her to stay on the bridge and make it home. Springtime brings nesting and mating instincts that Frightful has never experienced before. However, when it comes to migrating, Frightful’s instincts are slower to arrive and are in competition with her need to find and stay with Sam. Whereas at first, this conflict keeps her from migrating, by the end of the novel her instinct wins, confirming that she is still wild despite being raised by a human.

George also shows the way instinct produces competition in nature. Because every animal follows instincts for hunting and survival, clashes between animals are inevitable.