David Botros Honors English 1 Mrs. Kane Period 3 30 October 2016 Symbolism in Watership Down by Richard Adams Since the dawn of time, people have governed themselves differently. Some of those governments have stood the test of time, while others have collapsed. Through the 240 years that the United States of America has been a country, it has survived wars, solved important issues such as slavery, eradicated disease, and advanced technologically. None of those accomplishments would have been possible without a well-organized government, but not all countries and governments are as successful as the United States. In the book Watership Down, Richard Adams uses rabbits and their warrens to symbolize human governments and to show the reader …show more content…
In the Sandleford warren, political power and authority are given to a rabbit based upon physical strength. Rabbits that are large and strong will eventually join the Owsla, a group of rabbits that act as the police and the government, while those who are rather weak and small in size can only dream of joining the Owsla (Adams 5-6). For example, Hazel and Fiver, two of the main characters, are quite different. Fiver is weak and puny which means he will never join the Owsla, but Hazel on the other hand has some weight coming and will be inducted into the Owsla when he matures (Adams 6). All of the rabbits living in Sandleford are content with their lives, not sad but not happy. The coordination of the Sandleford warren is not the worst in the book, but it could be operated significantly better by introducing democracy in the Owsla. The way that the Sandleford warren is run is most comparable to an oligarchy, since rabbits that will be strong are the ones that receive political power and …show more content…
Efrafa is separated into Marks, and each Mark has a designated time for feeding, socializing, and all other things rabbits do above ground (Adams 233-234). In addition to an Owsla, Efrafa has a Council, Mark Captains, guards, sentries, and patrols. The chief rabbit of Efrafa is General Woundwort, a fierce and violent leader who has absolute power (Adams 304). General Woundwort has no problem with killing an insubordinate rabbit or anyone who challenges his actions. This strict management of the rabbits’ lives oppresses the rabbits and makes most of them depressed and unhappy. The way Efrafa is operated is similar if not almost identical to a totalitarian regime such as the Soviet
Throughout the book Watership Down there are many themes spanning the entire book, but three main themes stand out. These themes are home, leadership, and nature. The idea of home comes up again and again as the rabbits are trying to find a new home going place to place running from danger as well as finding what appeared to be a home only to find out its true horrors. Leadership is also another big theme as it shifts between the rabbits in the group as well as being stressed in the different warren they come across with varying levels of how it's enforced. Finally, there is a theme of nature. Throughout the book there is a constant battle of natural verses unnatural, the battle of prey and predator, and how rabbits should be in the
In Watership Down by Adams Richard, there are three different warrans Hazel and his rabbits go to. The first warran they meet on their flight from their endangered home is the warran of the snares. Rabbits there are given food daily by a human, but there are traps on the circumference of their warran they refuse to acknowledge. Upon leaving this warran, the rabbits start their own warran, one where living naturally and being kind reign. They soon discover the Efrafa warran, where the leader is cruel and overpowers the other rabbits. The three warrans repersent different forms of human government, all with different views about home and leadership.
One of the beauties of literature is the deep meaning that may lie behind everyday objects. Writers throughout the ages have given a whole new prospective to different colors, different times of day, the sun, the moon, and most interestingly, water. In The Awakening, there are several instances of symbolize but none as strong as that of the symbolism of water. Water can symbolize many different ideas in literature which is greatly shown in The Awakening. Many of these different schools of thoughts and symbolism, can be seen through the story’s main character, Edna Pontellier as well. As Edna develops as a character in the story and becomes a stronger woman, her swimming abilities and love of water also grow. As she begins to swim more, she
Elia Kazan’s film, On the Waterfront, demonstrates the complicated life of washed up ex-boxer, Terry Malloy, and his fight against the organized crime conglomerate that controls the shipping docks of Hoboken, New Jersey. The specific elements within the film, such as supporting characters, surrounding environment, and outfit selection are carefully utilized in order to constantly support Terry’s self-perception as the plot develops. The 1954 film On The Waterfront, demonstrates the reoccurring theme of importance of individual integrity in a corrupt society through character development, narrative structure, and costume employed through mise-en-scéne.
Have you ever felt that your government was lying to you? Hiding things, changing things behind your back, or convincing you they never said things that you distinctly recall them saying? In the book Animal Farm by twentieth century British author George Orwell many of the animals on the farm felt the same way. They also had suspicions about how honest their leaders were, but like most of society when rulers make excuses or explain their reasoning, citizens almost immediately believe or forgive them. Most of society prefers to be treated like a faceless heard, preferring to let someone rule and control them so they don't have to make any big economic choices on their own, but what most people don't consider is that when you grant someone the power to rule a district, were also granting the power to control that districts inhabitants. No matter how wrong it feels in our hearts, society will believe lies and turn its head to injustices if the man in charge has a good enough excuse, it's no secret that mankind allows itself to be easily persuaded and taken advantage of by it’s dignitaries.
Even though it is most commonly known as of the first modern horror films that has made its way on the top ten highest grossing films of all time, Steven Spielberg’s classic 1975 film, Jaws, illustrates the unquenchable human desire for purpose and wholeness which advocates that adopting the belief of “anatta” or “no-self” is the way to be liberated from this “fragmented state of unelightenment” (Sluyter 97-98). In the bigger picture, the main antagonist of the film, the shark itself, reflects us as individuals according to Sluyter. To be more specific, the shark is meant to symbolize our “fragmented point of view” we have of our lives and our constant search to remedy our emptiness by “trying to concretize ourselves” with impermanent items
This issue is not only presented in 'Taronga ', through the rulership of Steve and Molly, but also in the book 'Animal Farm ' by George Orwell. In this dystopian book, a group of farm animals overthrow the human owners, to live a life of freedom, but the pigs take leadership, and start controlling, and manipulating the animals, until they are leading a worse life than before.
For centuries, nations and philosophers have attempted to devise a government beneficial to all. Famous enlightenment thinkers Thomas Hobbes and Voltaire aimed to conceive such government. Unfortunately, the characters in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies do not implement the ideas of these enlightenment philosophers. In the aforementioned novel a group of English schoolboys ranging from the age of six to twelve crash land of on a desert island and attempt to govern themselves until their rescue. Ultimately, The boys on the island fall into chaos because they do not have strong government or establish a government that respects the freedom of speech of each person. The consequences of their failure to set up these governing components
Symbolism is defined as the representation; treatment or interpretation of things as symbolic. In society and in particular, literature, symbolism is a prominent component that helps to illustrate a deeper meaning then perceived by the reader. Symbolism can be anything, a person, place or thing, used to portray something beyond itself. It is used to represent or foreshadow the conclusion of the story. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies symbolism of the main characters Ralph, Jack and Simon plays a very important role in helping to show how our society functions and the different types of personalities that exist. An examination of Simon as a symbol of good, Ralph as a symbol of the common man, and Jack as a symbol of evil, clearly illustrates that William Golding uses characters as a symbol of what is really happening in the outside world throughout the novel.
...hing a tyrannical society. Another factor contributing to this process, which has not been mentioned in this paper yet, is that animals that were capable of seeing wrongness in the actions of the leaders did not express their opinions publicly, when they had a chance. They did not want interfere in the affairs of the farm because they thought there would be no use out of their actions. Another reason for their unconcerned behavior towards the affairs of the farm might be that they were merely disinterested in obtaining the power and leading the farm in which they would have been engaged had they asserted their positions publicly. That is why those animals decided to stay aloof without trying to prevent injustices that were happening. These all factors promoted the tyranny to emerge in the society that had meant to be just.
Throughout the reading of Watership Down the rabbits have came across a variety of different leaders or groups of rabbits. When thinking of the word leadership, usually a positive feeling comes along with it. Leaders are usually thought
Imagine a scene in which a small, wooden boat is peacefully floating on the ocean. Now, imagine that the scene is panning out to reveal the boat is merely a tiny speck, the ocean reaching out endlessly around it. Suddenly, the peaceful quality of the boat has been replaced by a feeling of consuming meaninglessness. Stephen Crane, a naturalist writer and reporter in nineteenth century America, often used nature to prompt readers into questioning their purpose and place in the universe. In “The Open Boat,” complex symbolism allows Crane’s characters to reflect humanity's shared experience regarding existence and self-worth.
Even those with the best of intentions can become corrupt when given power, as George Orwell so descriptively portrays in his allegorical novella Animal Farm. Animal Farm tells the story of a group of animals who, after living for years under the merciless rule of a drunk, careless farmer, one day rise up in rebellion. After driving the humans off their farm, the animals are left to create their own self-governed society. Based on the ideals of Communism, the animals’ gubernatorial structure at first seems appealing, promoting equality and a determination to create an independent, animal-only society. The system, which is known as Animalism, seems to be beneficial to all and offers promises of a better and more prosperous future. However, just
Imagine a group of young boys who have just crash-landed on a deserted tropical island with no adults or supervision. William Golding showed in his ground breaking novel Lord of the Flies, what may happen in just those circumstances. In his very complicated and diverse novel Golding brings out many ideas and uses many literary devices. Above all others though comes symbolism of three main important objects being the conch, fire, and "Piggy's" eyeglasses. Through each of these three symbols Golding shows how the boys adapt and change throughout the novel. These symbols also help to show each of the boy's ideals on a variety of elements from human nature to society and its controls. All three of these symbols also change and are one of the most important elements of the story.
Wilson makes a comparison between the government systems of America and Europe and his intentions were not necessarily for America to do the same as Europe, but for us to explore and research other governments and public administrations, so that we can analyze and master our own. It is questionable why other governments have been more successful with certain matters than our own here in America. Wilson expresses relevant concerns and arguments that government systems should be further studied and improved as, it is crucial and ultimately beneficial to the nation and it’s