Blog Post #11: Book Talk

Description of the text

The structure of this book is a 50-chapter novel broken into four sections, roughly 500 pages long, told from an omniscient point of view. The narration is handled in an unusual way—the story is told mostly from the perspective of rabbits. The story is set in rural England as the rabbits travel to four different warrens: the doomed Sandleford warren, the warren full of snares, the authoritarian Efrafa, and the idyllic Watership Down.

           Watership Down is the tale of a group of rabbits, consigned to the fringes of society, in search of a home where they can live free and proud. Fiver, a small, young rabbit, has a gift: He can tell when things are going to happen and he can sense whether they will be good or bad. Hazel, Fiver’s brother, believes his brother’s prophecy and decides to gather a group of rabbits to set our in search of a new warren. Among the rabbits he takes with him are Dandelion, who is the storyteller, Blackberry, the smartest rabbit, and Big Wig, the gruff soldier. They escape as fugitives and embark on a long journey through woods and field find their new home. 

As the novel progresses the history and worldview of the rabbits is revealed through their mythology, which is explored in great detail. At the bottom of the animal food chain, the rabbits constantly fear death due to the perils they constantly face. The stories about El-ahrairah, a mythical trickster, are the oral folktales that everyone knows and they share topics of culture, religious beliefs, virtues, and social norms. By the end of the novel, it is clear that in their own world, the adventures of Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry, and Dandelion are already in the process of becoming tales that will be part of rabbit lore for future generations.

Reason for choosing this text

I chose this book because I fell in love with it, even though it was assigned over summer break for a 10^th grade honors humanities class. On the surface, this novel can be seen as a simple adventure story about rabbits, but on a deeper level, Watership Down is not just about rabbits. Tackling big ideas, including the importance of story telling to society and preservation of our environment, Adams weaves an adult tale of human struggle cloaked as a book about bunnies.

 One of the reasons I enjoy reading this novel, besides the fact it’s an all-time classic, is the backstory behind its creation. To amuse his daughters on long car trips, Richard Adams began telling them an adventure story with rabbits as the heroes—the story that eventually became Watershp Down in 1972. Adams said of his writing style, “I derived early the idea that one must at all costs tell the truth to children, not so much about mere physical pain and fear, but about the really unanswerable things—what [writer] Thomas Hardy called ‘the essential grimness of the human situation.’” Adams manages to retain a positive message about working together to fight for what is right, even if it can seem hopeless and tiresome. 

This novel is an excellent read for any high school readers in a humanities, English, or social studies class. While it is a difficult text to analyze, the novel allows readers of varying levels to engage with the characters and plot. Oftentimes, society constructs an artificial separation between topics we consider suitable for children, and those topics intended for adults. Talking rabbits? Kid stuff. What is the best regime? Grown up talk. Richard Adams doesn’t make these distinctions in his novel. While Adams has stated that Watership Down is really just about “life,” it’s clear that we cannot escape thinking about topics such as truth, faith, justice, mercy, courage, statesmanship, folklore, religion, and the best regime. Watership Down encourages readers to consider these important topics, and better still it encourages us to consider these topics with our students.

Obstacles

1.     Length: This book would be difficult to use in a short unit because it’s long. Long books, with relatively small font, can be off-putting to reluctant teen readers. I believe this would be the biggest obstacle that would come up with this book.
2.     Readicide: Teachers must be cautious of over teaching this book. There are so many teachable concepts presented in this novel that it may be easy to get carried away.
3.     Long descriptions:  The narrator is very precise about the natural word, and enjoys naming each and every flower. Some readers may feel as though Adams attention to detail is boring and confusing.
4.     Difficult Vocabulary: The narrator occasionally uses difficult vocabulary, such as mercurial and unpropitious. However, to support student comprehension the narrator often tells the reader what they need to know and often stops the action to explain details, especially details about the rabbit world and language.

Teaching Ideas:

·  Introducing Epics: Watership Down can be read an epic in the tradition of the Odyssey and the Aeneid. The narrative involves a perilous journey on a grand scale. It celebrates the values of a nation much as the Odyssey celebrates the values of ancient Greece. The rabbits must rely on the supernatural from time to time and they have a mythology of their own. Like other epic heroes, the rabbits defend their nation in a great battle that secures the future of their society and all it stands for.

 Mapping the epic: Have students work individual or in groups to create a map illustrate the journey described in Watership Down. They should plot all the places mentioned in the story and add illustrations or captions to show what occurred at each location.

Writing an animal epic: Students can write their own epic set in the world of an animal they know something about.

·  Politics: The various rabbit warrens in the novel can be seen as different versions of human government. The warren of the snares (Cowslip’s warren) could be considered socialist, as all the rabbits are equal and no one has any more than anyone else. The Efrafan warren represents a totalitarian regime, as Woundwort and a handful of others rule with an iron first while all the rest are trod upon and abused. Watership Down (Hazel’s warren) represents a democracy, as it has a leader whom everyone wants making decisions based upon the will of the group.       

Rabbit debate: Students can discuss the subject of the ideal rabbit warren, and the four debaters are Hazel, the Chief Rabbit of the Sandleford Warren, General Woundwort of the Efrafan warren, and Cowslip from the warren of snares. The issues for debate include: how the Owsla should rule, how to behave toward other animals, how to avoid elil (lapine word for enemy), the distribution of flayrah (food), and any other issues that students can think of.

·  Discussion on the qualities of a good leader:   As implausible as it might seem to take leadership instructions from a fictional rabbit, Hazel, the novel’s protagonist, provides a model of the leadership qualities that can transform communities. Hazel actively seeks to become a leader. In fact, he is labeled as an “outskirter;” one of the rank and file of common rabbits. As the novel unravels, Hazel changes as he learns about what it means to be a good leader: courage, demureness, compassion, ability to innovate, harmonize opposing ideas, and efficaciously encourage change.