Use Of The Monomyth In Richard Adams Watership Down

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The story Watership Down by novelist Richard Adams details a small band of rabbits trying to find a new home. Fiver, a clairvoyant rabbit, convinced his brother, Hazel, and other rabbits to leave their current home and find a new one, due to a danger Fiver sees in his visions. American writer Joseph Campbell, known for his work in comparative literature, created the monomyth; a pattern of narrative found in many adventure stories. One of the many stages in the monomyth is Crossing the Threshold: the point where the hero leaves the mundane world and enters the world of adventure. In Watership Down, Crossing the Threshold appears when Hazel and his company arrive in the unfamiliar woods, just outside of their warren. After they enter the …show more content…

After the group comes across a river, Hazel and Fiver discuss if crossing the river is necessary, and how they were going to persuade the others into crossing. “‘Well, let’s go and talk to the others… It’s crossing they’re not going to fancy…’” (34). Crossing the river was their first physical challenge, as they had to figure out how to get everyone across safely, as Pipkin was injured and Fiver is one of the smaller rabbits. Furthermore, another problem was the other rabbits’ trust in Fiver’s intuition, and whether or not they were going to listen to him. In their old habitat, they most likely would have never had to cross a river, especially one that is as strong as this one, however they are left with no choice but to cross when Fiver stresses the importance to cross the river, per his intuition. The entry into the forest is a metaphor for the entry into the world of adventure. Although the assemblage had problems all along the way, they really only began after leaving the warren, the territory in which they’ve already explored, and entered the forest, the unfamiliar and

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