Watership Down Themes

Everyone has a certain idea in their minds of what their ideal life would be like. For a small group of rabbits, it’s three main themes: nature, leadership, and home. Throughout the novel, Watership Down, the rabbits are looking to fulfill their dream of living a content life. Author, Richard Adams, uses the themes nature, leadership, and home as the building blocks for creating the ideal warren. One of the most prominent and extensive themes in the novel is nature and the destruction of it by man. In the beginning of the book readers get a look at how man is starting to effect their environment when Adams describes the billboard they found near their warren to say, “six acres of excellent building land, is to be developed with high class

Although the theme of nature is an important building block for the ideal life on its own, it also cooperates well with the another theme of leadership. A normal, content life for the rabbits is one with security under a Chief Rabbit. This rabbit is usually the strongest, smartest one in the group and takes the responsibility of keeping up the warren. In Cowslip’s warren there was no defined leader and as Fiver put it, “They had no Chief Rabbit - no, how could they? - for a Chief Rabbit must be the El-ahrairah to his warren and keep them from death…” (116). Without leadership or a natural habitat, Cowslip’s warren is not natural, nor ideal for the rabbits who are looking for a place where they can live in harmony with nature as a community. Another example of the themes of nature and leadership working together is when Hazel and his friends discover the Efrafans. This warren’s Chief Rabbit is what people would describe as a dictator. General Woundwort did nothing but control and brainwash his community with the fear of men and punishment for disobeying. He made them give up their freedoms for what they believed was safety. Hazel and his rabbits recognized at once that it was a nightmare and Bigwig recognized some of the does were “not far from the end of their powers. A wild animal that feels it no longer has any

This is seen with the quote “‘I know what we ought to be looking for - a high, lonely place with dry soil, where rabbits can see and hear all around and men hardly ever come. Wouldn’t that be worth the journey?” (34). Hazel and his rabbits are used to their old warren with dry runs and warm burrows to escape in during the night or from weather and after beginning the journey, a safe warren has been one of their main goals. Upon discovering the downs Hazel took charge and said, “suppose we had deep, comfortable burrows sleep in?…Then we would be safe,” (132). By making the area familiar and natural this was the first step they took to make the downs their new home and being one step closer to their ideal life, having already found a place away from men and chosen a Chief Rabbit. To add the finishing touches to the home atmosphere in their new warren, they needed does. Hazel and his rabbits went to great lengths in order to bring does back to the warren and faced yet another challenge when they got home. General Woundwort was on his way to get revenge and the rabbits were faced with a difficult decision. Although the rabbits were scared, Hazel said, “‘we made this warren ourselves and Frith only knows what we’ve been through on account of it. I’m not going to leave to now….it’s my home,’”(412). By creating this sense of