More Questions

• Who is the narrator in the story and why do you think the author chose this narrator?

The story is told in third person perspective following Hazel, but occasionally changes to Bigwig, Fiver and General Woundwort. The author chose this because he can shift between characters’ view. Adams doesn’t have to stick to Hazel’s point of view. He could switch to Bigwig, because Bigwig did has his moment of being a hero. Adams let the audience experience differents view and so we get more involve in the story.

• Identify the protagonist and antagonist. How does the protagonist differ from the antagonist? How are they the same?

Hazel and General Woundwort differ in their way of being leaders. Hazel is more friendly. He gained trust by sharing ideas, being a good listener and risking himself for the group. General Woundwort chose to control the group and make them all scared of him by using violence. Hazel believes in each one of the rabbits, know them well and what they can achieve. General Woundwort’s approach is strict and violent.

My Version of Watership Down

More Classic Questions

• Who is the narrator in the story and why do you think the author chose this narrator?

The story is told in third person perspective following Hazel, but occasionally changes to Bigwig, Fiver and General Woundwort. The author chose this because he can shift between characters’ view. Adams doesn’t have to stick to Hazel’s point of view. He could switch to Bigwig, because Bigwig did has his moment of being a hero. Adams let the audience experience different view and so we get more involve in the story.

• Identify the protagonist and antagonist. How does the protagonist differ from the antagonist? How are they the same?

Hazel and General Woundwort differ in their way of being leaders. Hazel is more friendly. He gained trust by sharing ideas, being a good listener and risking himself for the group. General Woundwort chose to control the group and make them all scared of him by using violence. Hazel believes in each one of the rabbits, know them well and what they can achieve. General Woundwort’s approach is strict and violent. He likes order and thinks that to protect his rabbits, their need to be strict rules and it needs to be follow. They are both leaders, they both have good qualities like taking risk and quick minded and knows what to do best for the group but their way of applying it is different.

Change Your Fate

What was your favourite part of the novel? Why?

This may sound awfully strange, but the warren of snares made a big impression in me. The rabbits there is living almost human. They couldn’t see the reality of their lives, but only the heaven-like of no enemies, full of food and protected in their big warren. Living like that and knowing that anyone, even you could die at anytime. They try to be happy, appreciate lives but ironically wasting it as well. They even make poem, and create art works. This relate to human’s lives. When they are rich, and happy their isn’t much to worry about and I think this is how we have poetry and artworks, and the almost always come from rich people. If you go to a poor developing country, you will see their art loving people are not many because they have too much to worry about. Like how to find food for their dinner, how to pay money for their landlord, how to have a simple cup of water… But once this part is over, people start having more time for art, simply because they have nothing else to do.

Violence Is Not Always The Answer

Describe a major conflict. Whose sides are you on? Why?

A major conflict in the novel is one with General Woundwort and Hazel’s rabbits. For one obvious reason I am on Hazel’s side is that General Woundwort is violence and obsessive of killing. Still, I look at this conflict through these two point of view. Hazel did the wrong thing escaping the does (female rabbits) without Woundwort consent, but Woundwort wouldn’t anyway even though he knew that the Efrara is getting too big to control. His view of protecting his rabbits is different from Hazel. Woundwort protecting them means staying away from human and their many enemies at all cost. And yes, it cost their wild life as rabbits. Human is evil and cruel to animals. Woundwort did all he can to hide his warren away from this. He also wants to be more superior than the rabbits lived before him. He fights his enemies instead of letting them find him as a delicious meal. Hazel is opposite. He doesn’t fight, he knows the way nature works. As much as he would not like to be eaten, their enemies only kill because they need to survive. Hazel also think violent is not the right way to protect the rabbits. The rabbits in his warren should allow to leave and create a new warren somewhere else, not kept in misery. I see their good purposes for the rabbits but the way General Woundwort is doing to achieve it is not right.

Mood and Tone

Mood: *What is mood? Find a definition and write it into your own words. *What is tone? Find a definition and write it into your own words. ***How does mood differ from tone?

Look at the picture below and state what mood it is. How do you feel?

A piece of literature needs to have a mood because if the author didn’t describe the feeling and the mood, the reader gets bored. All contribution of setting, objects, details, images and words is put into describe a specific mood. Mood can vary from sad to happy, bright to mysterious.

Tone is the attitude, stating or implying toward a subject from the author. In general, tone is hard to set apart from mood. Pessimism, optimism, earnestness, seriousness, bitterness, humorous, sarcastic and joyful are some of many attitudes/tone the author can choose to express through their choice of words and details.

Read the quote and state what tone it is.

“Life is so beautiful. It is an artwork full of whimsical little birds.”

The tone is joyful.

Answer the following questions based on your novel:

1. Overall, how did you feel when reading the book and why did you feel that way?

The story is fairly simple to read although, the language and words structure is sophisticated and serious. The anthropomorphism of the rabbits were written in such way that does not sound ridiculous.

2. What was the funniest part? Saddest? Why?

The hero named El-ahrairah helps keep the novel entertaining whilst the plot is getting more serious. This folk hero is an inspiration for the rabbits to follow. I find it amusing how the rabbits are smarter than people do, intelligent in many ways. There were also sad and mystery created as the novel goes on. At first, the rabbits feared for the home. Then there were time when they feel sad for the rabbits who stayed back while they run away.

3. What was the most exciting or the strangest thing that happened in the book?

What was so strange to me is how a rabbit adopt the way of the human to become mean and evil. General Woundwort – it is obvious in his name that he is not up to negotiating but all about fighting strategy. He is “Hitler” in the book.

4. What do you remember most about the story?

The part that made the most impression for me was General Woundwort obsessive behavior toward destroying the Honeycomb and the rest of the rabbits.

5. Did this story remind you of anything that has happened to you?

It did slightly remind me of a best friend of mind who had passed away. I don’t know whether it is the little rabbit Fiver, who somehow remind me of her or the fact that the event made a significant change in my life. Either way, the violence in that book, of human destruction, and creation that seems evil to animals is surely one of the reason why. The car scared many of the rabbits, and killed one. I think the story remind of my friend’s accident.

6. What made you frightened or angry in the story?

I hate the fact that such evil and violent character exist in history. “Hitler” and the Khmer Rough are examples of such violence and discrimination in the past. General Woundwort in the story made me so angry and terrified. It is not just violent, it is brutal and cruelty. I hate it.

7. Does the story create a certain mood or feeling? What is the mood? How is it created? How did the author achieve the mood of the story? Does the mood change or remain the same throughout the book?

In my opinion, the book created one big mood, but to achieve that certain mood, the author created many more. Moods like sad, happy, angry, cruelty, frightened, sometimes bright and sometimes mysterious. The mood change rapidly throughout the novel. The use of intelligent words, sophisticated and descriptive made it easy to read and the reader can feel the mood so well that it disgust you or give you the sense of relieve.

8. How does the author use words to achieve a certain mood? Give examples.

“Ever since their arrival most of them had felt out of their depth among these magnificent, well-fed strangers, with their detached manners, their Shapes of the wall, their elegance, their adroit evasion of almost all…”

“Hazel was surprised.”

Classics are Classics

Classics Reflection

Describe what you have learned from the study of your classic novel.

Classics are classic when through time, it is still enjoyable to young readers because they can relate to the characters in the novel. A classic must achieve many things like moral values, truthfulness, effective language use and universality.

What skills have you improved?

Regardless of my English writing, I’ve learnt a lot about how to write an essay and it purposes. We write an essay to persuade the reader to our point of view, which means using words like “may be, perhaps, I think etc.” won’t help. My vocabulary has developed moderately after our classics study. Vocabulary are learn best in a context because it make sense and you can actually can write better without having to repeat words over and over, making my essay boring. I started out by brainstorming. Then listing in order of what my essay should include and in order that it must go. Further more, I learnt why some books become classics and how they are written.

What did you find enjoyable?

I enjoy reading the book “Watership Down” as it has an interesting plot and characters. The author amazed me just how in depth the rabbit society he created is. They were as real as human society. I didn’t particularly enjoy writing the essay but I do like to read over it and keep changing it.

What did you find difficult? How did you overcome this?

I’m clear that I chose a difficult book to read. I find it hard to finish the book in time but I tried my best to read as much as I can. This time when we actually have to write a proper essay, it rather confused me. Not because I don’t understand the structure, but because I don’t know where certain examples should go. And with all the themes linking together, I can’t mention them in one paragraph too much and steal away the interest of the next section.

What skills and knowledge will you be able to use in the future?

I do realize how important it is to write an essay. I will need to have these skills to graduate schools, go to university and get out to work. It is hard to write an essay with a big gap of vocabulary.  And since English is my second language, I’m required to improve my grammar. My sentence structure isn’t perfect either. In general, I learnt a lot from reading “Watership Down” and a lot more on writing an essay. Write now I’m still not confident with my essay writing but I’m hoping I will get more familiar with it in the future.

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Regarding Chapter Reviews of Watership Down

Dear Blog Readers,

Since this is the end of our unit on Classics, I won’t be updating anymore chapter review on this blog. You will have to finish this yourself by reading the book. Watership Down is a great novel and I hope you will love it too.

Ciao!

Watership Down – Evaluation

Task 9:

Watership Down is one of my favourite novel.  It is rather a significant book. Adams describes the world through the rabbits eyes. Even though the language and vocabulary are quite hard for me, but it’s just one of those books that you can’t put down. I think what makes it interesting is that the lives and the culture of the rabbits are so carefully research, created and detailed. The messages convey through the novel are a lot and quite big. The rabbits here aren’t cute and charming. They are deeply thoughtful, they make decision like humans do. Only that they live with nature and not destroy it.

Watership Down – Key Quotes

Task 8:

Quote 1 – “ All other elil do what they have to do and Frith moves them as he moves us. Men will never rest till they’ve spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals.”

Significant/Importance – Men are evil, an evil that is not natural to the world. Holly says this because animals hunt and kill simply because that’s what they do to survive. Men are selfish and avaricious. They take more than they need. Foxes and stoats kill rabbits for food, even though rabbits don’t want to be killed, their elil only take one to fill their stomach and like others, they don’t take more than they need. Men kill animals more than just to eat. They kill because they can and because they want to. Holly believes men will never stop until there is nothing left. Adams message to stop destruction of nature.

Quote 2 – “Human being says: “It never rains but it pours.” This is not very apt, for it frequently does rain without pouring. The rabbits proverb is better expressed. They say, “One cloud feels lonely”: and indeed it is true that the appearance of a single cloud often means that the sky will soon be overcast. However that may be, the very next day provided a dramatic second opportunity to put Hazel’s idea into practice”

Significant/Importance – Another differences between human being and rabbits. Human tend to compare and look at things more abstractly but rabbits don’t. They say what they see, what is true to them. The phrase “It never rains but it pours.” Means when troubles come they come together while the rabbits phrase “ One cloud feels lonely” bassically describe that it cannot be just one cloud, it will pull the others to come with it.

Quote 3 – “The rabbits became strange in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was happening. But even to themselves they pretended that all was well, for the food was good, the were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear; and that struck here and there, never enough at a time to drive them away. They forgot the ways of wild rabbits. They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy’s warren and paying his price?”

Significant/Importance: Fiver figured out what was wrong with Cowslip’s warren here. The rabbits were fed and kept away from their predators by a farmer. Life is easy for them until one of them catches his snares. Fiver explained from perspective of a rabbit, how they loss their natural instincts, unable to escape, they can’t return to the wild. They lived just fine and excepted death in silence. They knew that death was part of the warren’s life, they pretend that is was alright and pay the price for an easy life. The warren is a place to die rather than to live. Fiver warned the rabbits, but no one believed him, and after Bigwig was trapped in a snare, they finally understood him.

Watership Down – The Language

Task 7:

Technique 1: Foreshadowing

Examples: Like obelisk towards which the principal streets of a town converge the strong will of a proud spirits stands prominent and commanding in the middle of the art of war” Clausewitz, On War

Intended Effect: Adams chose quote from famous works to foreshadow each and every chapter of his book.

Technique 2: Symbolism

Examples: The different warrens in the novel represent the different government in society. Efrara warren is a monarchy government where one rules with some others because they are stronger and they have power while the rest obey and be abused. The warren of snares, where everyone is equal in rights is socialist and Hazel’s warren is democracy, where everyone vote for a leader and make decision together to benefit the group.

Intended Effect: Adams in other word is suggesting that the huge success of the third government is the best way to organize society.

Technique 3: Comparison

Examples: No human beings, except the courageous and experienced blind, are able to sense much in strange place where they cannot see, but with rabbits it is otherwise. They spend half their lives underground in darkness or near-darkness, and touch, smell and hearing convey as much or more to them than in sight.

Intended Effect: Throughout the novel, Adams stated and compare the differences between human and rabbits, often the bad habits and lifestyle. Adams is saying we should have more humanity, stop destroying the earth and stop taking so much.