Richard Adams' classic novel Watership Down isn't simply a book about rabbits. Adams tackles profound ideas, such as the importance of storytelling in society, the essentiality of community, and the values of a brave heart in a dangerous world with his timeless epic, which has been compared even to Virgil's Aeneid and the Odyssey.
Adams places great focus on story. Legends permeate Watership Down. When continuing on seems aimless, and our travelers need reassuring, their own storyteller, Dandelion, tells myriad tales of El-Ahrairah, “Prince with a Thousand Enemies.” Not only do they have stories concerning the mythical El-ahrairah, but, by the end of the journey, it is clear that the adventures of Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, and Dandelion are already in the course of becoming legends that rabbit parents will tell their kittens, and that will become part of rabbit lore for future generations. The chief villain of Watership Down, a very violent rabbit by the name of General Woundwort, himself becomes a figure of folklore--a bogey rabbit whom parents use to keep their kits from misbehaving.
“Mother rabbits would tell their kittens that if they did not do as they were told, the General would get them—the General who was first cousin to the Black Rabbit himself.”
Hearing a description of the story of Watership Down, you might rightly imagine that it is a children’s story, a fable about talking animals reminiscent of Beatrix Potter. This isn’t entirely untrue, as Adams derived these characters and settings for this book from stories he would tell his children on long drives through the countryside. What sets Watership Down apart from comparable children’s literature is its length--in paperback it is 481 pages--and its prose, wh...
... middle of paper ...
...sses in others, Bigwig has learned to see them in himself.
“My Chief Rabbit has told me to stay and defend this run, and until he says otherwise, I shall stay here.”
One of the miracles of Watership Down is the viewpoint with which Adams illustrates his universe: he does not impose a man’s point-of-view onto the rabbit’s lives, but instead imposes a rabbit’s point-of-view onto the world we know. Humans have a very minimal presence, only a few fleeting moments, seen at a distance. These interactions are all negative, and the men are always trying to find a way to exterminate these rabbits because they are on the mens' land. In the action-packed climax, Lucy, a young human child, offers us a glimmer of hope to the possibility of what humans can help to accomplish if we exercise something we have been given the unique capacity to possess in affluence: compassion.
Books: a group of blank white pages where authors record memories, reveal what they imagined, and take us along on a ride through their minds. These past few weeks, I had been reading two popular novels that did in fact take me on that journey: The Outsiders written by S.E. Hinton, and Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson. In no uncertain terms, I did notice that these two books could be compared to one another. Although these are two separate books, written by two different authors with separate journeys, they actually have great similarities and differences in the characters and plot.
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” At some point in life one is faced with a decision which will define the future, but only time will tell whether or not the choice was right or wrong. The Boat by Alistair MacLeod demonstrates that an individual should make their own decisions in life, be open to new experiences and changes, and that there is no way to obtain something, without sacrificing something else.
Updike, John. “A&P”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 864 - 869.
In his 1984 novel Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins presents a narrative that rivals the often fantastical tales told in myth. Using classical mythology as a foundation, and, in particular, providing a loose adaptation of The Odyssey by Homer, Robbins updates and modifies characters and concepts in an effort to reinforce the importance of the journey of life and the discovery of self. Like the ancient myth-makers, Robbins commands the reader’s attention with outrageous situations and events while at the same time providing characters that the reader can relate to and learn from.
Updike, John. "A&P." Thinking and Writing About Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 981-86. Print.
The fall of Icarus often comes as a cautionary tale about pride and ambition. However, W. H. Auden and William Carlos Williams took inspiration from Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus in their respective poems Musee des Beaux Arts and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus to tell a new tale. The poems use imagery, form, repetition, and alliteration to convey the apathy of the world in the face of personal tragedy.
After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for political commentary as some might suggest or was he simply another “childhood” that had; until that time, been ignored? If so, what inspired him to move in this direction?
When people think of Dr. Seuss, they think; “Oh, the cat with the spontaneous black and white hat” or the author who wrote books about moral values and created art pieces that expressed politics. Dr. Seuss wrote children’s books not only to open up a child’s imagination about a fantastical world full of new words, creatures, and experiences, but also about eye opening issues. He promoted the importance of racial equality and other political issues, as well as the enduring hardships of life through his literature. Books like The Sneetches, The Lorax, I had trouble in getting to solla sollew and Oh, The Places You’ll Go! , are just a few of the many books Dr. Seuss wrote, but each of these books had a hidden moral message that could change the way people think. Seuss incorporated valuable lessons about everyday struggles in his books, and in doing so allowed readers to think and reevaluate their beliefs and make better choices about their lives.
Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key. Although The Tale of Peter Rabbit is not a ‘modern’ picturebook, and was written to a different concept of childhood than Voices in the Park, it certainly falls within Bader’s description.... ... middle of paper ...
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is not a book with a particular message, rather a simple and pure adventurous tale of a young man seeking treasure and himself. In Themes in Treasure Island by Gary Carey, he explains that folktales are of young men or women who leave their lives behind to seek fortune, such as “the myth of Jason embarking to bring home the dragon-guarded Golden Fleece, Odysseus on his hazardous journey back to Ithaca from Troy, and the medieval romance of Perceval seeking the Grail.” Carey believes all these stories, myths, and tales have one central theme -- it is an adventurous quest. Within this quest comes the rituals, the guardians, and the struggles that test even the bravest in the search of himself. There are many tests that the protagonist must face to succeed in his goal to obtain the lost treasure. The final tests and guardians that Jim Hawkins, the protagonist, encounters determines his true goal of the quest he accepted. I agree that within each quest tale there is a portrayal of an adventure and inner soul-searching of some sort, yet what Carey fails to mention is that the quest serves as a plot symbol. Behind each quest is a story of the protagonist's struggle to find himself, but the symbol represents the human struggle as well. A person may struggle trying find himself in the world today, not knowing who is he or what his life’s purpose is yet. Many readers are able to relate to Treasure Island because not only is the protagonist trying to find himself, but some readers also long for the quest of their life (Cliff Notes).
The Narnia Chronicles have already established themselves as timeless works of literature. They appeal to both the atheists and the God-fearing, to both the uneducated and to scholars; to children and adults. An understanding of the Biblical allegory in these books is not essential to their appreciation. A critical analysis of these works, however, does allow the reader to more fully appreciate Lewis' unique gift to simplify complex narratives and craft beautiful children's fantasies. This, in turn, allows the reader to gain both a deeper understanding of Lewis as a skilled creative writer, and a deeper satisfaction of his art. To be able to appreciate C.S. Lewis as such an artisan can only add to one's enjoyment of his works.
Laura Ingalls Wilder may be viewed as one of the greatest children’s authors of the twentieth century. Her works may be directed towards a younger crowd but people of all ages enjoy her literary contributions. The way that Wilder’s books are written guarantees that they have a place among classics of American literature (“So many…” 1). Laura Ingalls Wilder’s form of writing portrays an American family’s interworking in a journey through childhood.
Children literature is a term that refers to the texts written for children. The artist uses creative ways to ensure that children are provided with educational books, touching on a variety of themes. This paper will include comparison of two characters from the two texts, “Hana's Suitcase: A True Story,” authored by Karen Levine and “Charlotte’s Web,” written by E.B. White, with the aim of understanding ways in which problems are solvable as indicated by selected characters.
The construction of children’s literature was a gradual process. For a long period of time children’s books were frowned upon. The stories were said to be vulgar and frightening. Adults censored children’s ears to stories of daily life, tales with improbable endings were not to be heard. It was not until the mid 1800s that stories of fairies and princesses began to be recognized. Although children’s literature was accepted, the books were not available for all children. With limited access to education, few public libraries, and the books’ costs, these texts were only available to the middle and high- class. As public education and libraries grew so did the accessibility of books and their popularity. They no longer were considered offensive, but rather cherished and loved by many children. Children’s literature became orthodox and a revolution began, changing literature as it was known.