What Is The Theme Of Freedom In Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In The Willows

In The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame examines many aspects of life, and the exploration of freedom, the capacity to act by choice rather than by determination of others ("Freedom"), is prevalent among all of the characters. Throughout the book we see the characters express themselves with little to no restraint.

The characters are always going on an adventure of some kind and don't appear to have jobs. Without the restraint of such responsibilities the characters are free to explore the world around them. This lure of adventure is shared by pretty much every character within the book reaffirming the necessity of freedom within the book. Toad is constantly finding new hobbies to fill his days with, but, like many children, he replaces them constantly. The adventure of the caravan shows the danger of his careless indulgence and presents the other characters with an abuse of freedom. Toad is the picture of freedom when a child has the opportunity to use it too much. The rest of that characters are at least mature enough to understand right and wrong, and can experience the adventure with appreciation for what they have in life. To Toad what he has might not be enough as shown by his need to explore new hobbies

While he learns his lesson and eventually embraces his friends in a whole new light, additionally it places restrictions on the concept of freedom within the book. While this might appear contradictory, actually, a world with complete and total freedom would fall into anarchy. Such a descent into madness freedom would be worthless since it would become whatever one willed it to be. Freedom needs to be special to be truly appreciated, living in a free country doesn’t seem important until contrasted with a country with less personal freedoms. In order to experience true freedom we must understand and appreciate that there can be little no freedom for