Conclusion.

Although at some points it was a little boring, I really enjoyed Watership Down. I learned plenty of useful information and i could apply it easily to my life. Not only was it a pleasant story, it also had meaning in it and it stood as a symbol for important subjects in life such as loyalty, friendship, and the importance of a good home.

These next videos are just for fun :)

Like.

In the beginning of each chapter, Adams quotes something from a famous text the foreshadows what is going to take place in the next chapter. Example:

When the green field comes off like a lid
Revealing what was much better hid:
        Unpleasant.
And look, behind you without a sound
The woods have come up and are standing round
        In deadly crescent.

The bolt is sliding in its groove,
Outside the window is the black remov-
        ers' van.
And now with sudden swift emergence
Come the woman in dark glasses and humpbacked surgeons
        And the scissors man.

W. H. Auden, The Witnesses

The next chapter was about one of the companions who gets entangled in one of the farmers snares.

Question Answered.

In my last post I asked if rabbits thought of humans as destroying their homes and world, well I found a quote in the book that answers that question. The following quote and explanation is taken from :http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/watership/quotes.html#explanation2.
Quote:


"All other elil do what they have to do and Frith moves them as he moves us. They live on the earth and they need food. Men will never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals."

Explanation:

Holly has just begun telling the story of the way the men poisoned their old warren. What he expresses is a sentiment found in several other places in the novel: the idea that men are capable of an evil the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else in nature. Other animals, even the elil who hunt rabbits, simply do what they need to do to survive. Rabbits may not want to be killed by stoats, but the stoats only want to kill the rabbits to eat, and they never kill more than they need. Men, on the other hand, rarely kill to eat and much more frequently kill for other reasons. Furthermore, they almost always kill more than they need. Holly is convinced that men will not stop until they have destroyed all of the animals. This passage is part of a plea on Adams's part to stop our destruction of the environment.

Interesting.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this book is that it was all from a rabbits point of view. The way they picture men and cars and roads and even rivers! In the book they come across a river and none of them have ever seen anything so monstrous! And when a seagull tells them about the ocean they can hardly comprehend it. I suppose it was interesting because all those things are normal to me, they are part of my life, and seeing it from a rabbits perspective really made me think and realize how small they are and in reality how small I really am. I definitely haven't seen everything there is to see and also, compared to God and the universe, I am a speck of dust! What made me laugh about the book was that whenever the rabbits saw a man, he always had a "white stick" in his mouth, meaning a cigarette. I wonder if that really is how rabbits and other animals see us, as creatures ruining their homes with foul smells and "white sticks"...

New Information

Baby Bunnies

Before reading this book I had no idea really about rabbits and their pregnancy cycle, but I actually learned a lot. As many people know, rabbits do have many, many babies. you know how the saying goes, "They breed like rabbits," meaning that they are expert reproducers. But something that I learned was that sometimes baby rabbits that die in their mothers wombs are absorbed back into the mother's bodies. In Watership Down the rabbits have a legend of how that came to be, it goes like this, "Long ago El-ahrairah (the father of all Rabbits), made a deal with Frith (the rabbit god). Frith promised him that rabbits were not to be born dead or unwanted. if there's little chance of a decent life for them, it's a does's privilege to take them back into her body unborn."

Weird..

You always think of rabbits as timid and fearful, which most of the time is the case, but in Watership Down, there were several rabbits who actually enjoyed fighting and were trained to fight. Rabbits will fight for a doe during mating season, but naturally they are not real fighters. That's why when I was reading that in the book I thought it was odd. I found this video of rabbits fighting, they are quite agile.

They are very rigid and tense in this video, and they are ripping each other's hair out!

How Does This Story Relate to Me?

My family

Watership Down  really emphasizes family and sticking together no matter what. My family has always been there for me and supported my decisions. I have been extremely blessed with a family that loves me and helps me.The rabbits are loyal to each other and respect one another, just like my family.

the Bunny family

Bright Eyes

This song is by Simon and Garfunkel, and it describes the end of the book. The end of the book, all though sad, is peaceful and makes you feel like everything is as it should be. Bright Eyes is the name of the song, I hope you like it!

More Symbolism..

Remember how I told you about Fiver's special gift of sensing when something bad was going to happen? Well
in the warren of snares, a farmer feeds the rabbits and keeps foxes and other enemies away from the rabbits, but at the same time he sets up traps for them so that he can have a scrumptious dinner a few times a month. Fiver warns his companions not to join the warren, he has no idea about the traps, but he knows that something is not right with the strange warren. When talking to Hazel, his brother, Fiver exclaimed that he wouldn't go into the warren because, "The roof of that hall is made up of bones." This symbolizes death, the deaths of the rabbits that used to live in the warren, but were snared by the farmers trap, the deaths of Fiver's friends if they stayed another day in that hostile warren.

Symbolism

Watership Down is very symbolic. One of the major symbols in the book is the different types of warrens in the book. There are three main warrens in the book, the warren of the snares, the Efrafan warren and the warren that Hazel and the other rabbits set up. This article talks about what each warren represents.

The different rabbit warrens in the novel can be seen as different versions of human government. The warren of the snares could be considered socialist, as all the rabbits there are equal and no one has anything more than anyone else. The Efrafan warren represents a totalitarian regime, as Woundwort and a handful of others rule with an iron fist while all the rest are trod upon and abused. Hazel's warren represents a democracy, as it has a leader whom everyone wants making decisions based upon the will of the group. This symbolism clearly carries with it some degree of value judgment, as the first two regimes clearly fail while the third is a smashing success. Adams suggests that democracy—or at least some form of government in which the leader is chosen by the people and acts according to the will of the people—is the best way to organize society.

Article taken from: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/watership/themes.html

The Language

One thing that I though was really cool about the book was that it was as if it had been translated from rabbit language into our language. Some of the words weren't translated so they had a glossary in the back. Alot of the words are really funny such as hrududu is car. Here is the complete glossary:



Bob-stones: A traditonal game among rabbits. A "cast" of stones is on the ground, and covered with a forepaw. The opponent must hazard some sort of guess about its nature
Crixa, the: (The Cross) The center of Efrafa, at the crossing point of two bridle paths.
Efrafa: The name of the warren founded by General Woundwort.
El-ahrairah: The rabbit folk hero. See Lapine Mythology for more information.
Elil: Enemies of rabbits. U Hrair is used to denote all enemies of rabbits at once, meaning "The Thousand".
Embleer: Stinking, as in the smell of a fox. Embleer Frith! is a curse meaning "stinking Frith!".
Flay: Common food, as in grass.
Flayrah: Unusually good food, such as lettuce or carrots.
Frith: The sun, personified as a god by rabbits. See Lapine Mythology for more information.
Fu Inlé: After moonrise.
Hlao: Any dimple or depression formed in the grass, such as that formed by a daisy plant or a thistle, which can hold moisture.
Hlao-roo: 'Little Hlao'. An affectionate diminutive of the name Hlao.
Hlessi: A rabbit living above ground, without a regular hole or warren. A wandering rabbit. Plural: hlessil.
Homba: A fox. Plural: hombil.
Hrair: A great many; an uncountable number. Any number over four.
Hrairoo: 'Little Thousand'. the name of Fiver in Lapine. See Rabbits of Note for more information.
Hraka: Droppings, excereta.
Hrududu: A motor vehicle such as a car or tractor. Plural: hrududil.
Hyzenthlay: 'Shine-dew-fur' = Fur shining like dew. Name of an Efrafan doe.
Inlé: Literally the moon or moonrise. But a second meaning carries the idea of darkness, fear and death.
Lendri: A badger
Marli: A doe, or mother rabbit
M'saion: 'We meet them'
Narn: Pleasant or nice to eat
Ni-Frith: Noon ('High sun')
Nildro-hain: "Blackbird's Song". The name of a doe.
Owsla: The strongest rabbits in a warren, the ruling clique. Commonly made of physically powerful rabbits of at least 2 years age, although some Owlsa also hold especially intelligent or crafty rabbits as well.
Owslafa: Council Police.
Pfeffa: A cat.
Rah: A prince, ruler or chief rabbit. Suffix used to denote something beyond the ordinary.
Roo: A suffix used to denote a diminutive.
Sayn: Groundsel.
Silf: Outside, that is, not underground.
Silflay: To go above ground to feed. Also used as a noun
Tharn: Stupefied, distraught, hypnotized with fear. Depending on context, it can also mean 'looking foolish' or 'heartbroken' or 'forlorn'.
Thethuthinnang: "Movement of Leaves". Name of a doe.
Thlay: Fur or hair
Thlayli: "Fur-head", used as a nickname.
Threar: A rowan tree or mountian ash.
Vair: To excrete, pass droppings.
Yona: A hedgehog. Plural: yonil.
Zorn: Destroyed, murdered. Denotes a catastrophe.

Home

A major theme in Watership Down is home. The rabbits are searching for a new home, which they find early on in the book, but it is not a real home because they don't have any does. the rest of the book they spend searching for does and trying to better their home. There are many different versions of home in the story as well.  The rabbits run into several different warrens, each are very different. One the rabbits call The Warren of Snares because there is a farmer who lays snares, and the rabbits who are in the warren know that, but they just except it as a way of life, it really isn't a home at all because the rabbits are all living in fear, not knowing when they are going to die. This song is very relevant to this theme in the book.

Dear Abbey

I wrote this once for my journal in English class. Fiver is one of the main characters in Watership Down. He has sort of like a sixth sense where he can tell when something bad is going to happen, usually nobody listens to him, even though he is always right.

Dear Abby,
I have a strange gift of sensing when there is danger around me or even around my warren. A few days ago, my brother and I were taking a hop around the warren and a sense of great danger fell over me. I couldn't put my finger on what it was exactly, but I knew that everyone had to leave the warren immediately, I saw a field full of blood and other awful things. How am I supposed to get everyone to believe me? I am the runt of the litter and no one ever pays any attention to me, they're all just going to think that I am doing it for their attention. Any advise?
-Fearful in the bunny colony.

About The Author

Richard Adams was born in 1920. He attended Bradfield College and after that he went to Worcester College, Oxford to read modern history. He served in the British Army during World War II, and then worked in the civil service. The story of Watership Down  began as a story that he was telling his two girls, they insisted that he write it down. He wrote the 426 page book in only two years. The book was published two years later in 1972. He won the Carnegie Medal for Watership Down, and over 1 million copies were sold worldwide.

Information taken from: http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/public/author_profile.php?id=47

Introduction.

Watership Down is the tale of a band of rabbits and their adventures in discovering a new warren (rabbit home).
They face many dangers such as the "Thousand Enemies" which are really any animal that hunts and kills rabbits, and other hostile warrens that could prove fatal to the bunnies. It is a very exciting book and it kept me reading long hours into the night. here is a trailer to the cartoon movie made of it.