Analysis of Richard Adams' Watership Down
Richard Adams novel, Watership Down, is the account of a group of rabbits trip to search out a new location to inhabit. After escaping the Sandleford Warren because of one rabbit’s instincts, nearly a dozen rabbits cross virgin country. Along the way, they run across a few other warrens. These places exhibit a completely different way of living to the fleeing group. What they learn is vital when they develop their own warren. From these places they manage to collect some rabbits to increase their size once they reach a resting point at their final destination. Each of the places they encounter is set up differently. These warrens contain a distinct and unique social system, belief and
…show more content…
The warren of snares could be considered socialist because all the rabbits there are equal and no one has anything more than anyone else.
Efrafa can only be explained as a totalitarian warren with General Woundwort clearly being the dictator. His military regime leaves the majority of his subjects unhappy. The entire warren “is organized to conceal its existence . . . the Owsla have every rabbit in the place under orders. You can’t call your life your own: and in return you have safety- if it’s worth having at the price you pay” (Adams 238-9). All dwellers of the warren have a marking that distinguishes them from other groups, controlling their time above ground. They also must defecate in a specific area and then conceal it. There are more rabbits than the warren can hold, with the majority of females unable to reproduce because of the overcrowding. All rabbits aspire to be in the Owsla and the Council because of the privileges and they have the best of everything (Adams 240). Woundwort maintains his power over the warren through fear and force, which, in the end, causes his great downfall.
The rabbits reach the Watership Down early on in the story, where they decide to remain and set up a government with the will of the people being the deciding factor in regulations. After discovering they are doeless, Bigwig convinces the does of Efrafa on the wonders of Watership Down, telling them “ . . .we mate with whom we chose and dig our own
One way Cowslip’s warren differs from Sandleford and Hazel’s warren is that it is perceived as a utopia. The reason for this is because the rabbits there are strange rabbits. These rabbits are fed by a farmer; only to get eaten at the end. But these rabbits do not know their ending. When Hazel's warren env=counted them, they asked Cowslip's warren questions. The questions that started with "w," were always ignored. Cowslip's warren is an anarchy because not one rabbit has authority over another.
The rabbits were hopeless in Bigwig’s eyes, for they didn’t have any steam to come out and rebel against the Efrafa officials. The rabbits that resided there were probably always expressionless and powerless because they lived in a very orderly warren. Most of them probably had lost all hope in trying to escape since they hadn’t had luck in the past and hadn’t been able to formulate a new plan.
In the story, Watership Down, the rabbits tell stories about a trickster rabbit named El-ahrairah and the rabbits have a parallel action between the stories. The story is about few rabbits who leave their warren because one of the rabbits feels that there is danger near them and they decide to go far away from their home. The rabbits tell stories at times when something big or bad is happening. The stories are all about a past rabbit, El-ahrairah who tricks other rabbits to do good things for his warren and to collect food. Many of the plans that the rabbits make are similar to the tricks that El-ahrairah does. In Watership Down, a rabbit named Dandelion tells stories about El-ahrairah and Hazel’s rabbits are influenced by the stories to make plans that relate to El-ahrairah’s tricks.
The location of the Sandleford Warren is a grass field in England. The current location of of warren is on top of a location that a housing development. The type of government in the Sandleford Warren is a plutocracy. A plutocracy is a government run by the wealthy, which makes those individuals powerful. “Cowslips are for Owsla*-don’t you know that?” p.5 The Sandleford Warren is ran by the powerful and the poor members of society aren’t treated as well. The general moral of the rabbits is that they are all satisfied with the living conditions except for Fiver. All the rabbits rarely see harm or danger, except once Fiver believes evil is coming, and we see a sign for the housing development. There was a caste system in place in the warren. The Outskirtz were the lowest in the society, also known as the normal average rabbits. The Owsla were second in authority and power and they were big strong rabbits. They protected the leaders and most powerful
However, believers in socialism would completely disagree with this ideal. Socialism is the economic system in which the workers, instead of a rich minority of entrepreneurs, own all industry. Workers receive the full fruits of their labors instead of being given miniscule compensation for backbreaking labor. Since the people are paid well for their work, work becomes a cooperative entity where people come to rely on one another and people actually are more inclined to do their fair share to help the advancement of society as a whole.
Mr. Jones, the farmer, goes to sleep drunk one night when the most respected animal calls a meeting. Major, as the pig is called, waits until everyone is settled to begin describing the gist of the dream he had had the night before. He tells them that their lives are much harder than they need be. The only reason why they aren’t happy is that they must deal with humans. He says humans are useless and profit off everyone else’s hard work. Unless they rebel, their lives and those of their children will never get better. The group decides that all four-legged or winged animals are friends and will not be harmed when they eventually rebel. Then, Major sings a lively old song that everyone immediately loves, Beasts of England, but they all
In the movie, “On The WaterFront”, I would apply the theory of virtue ethics to the problem that Terry faced in corrupt union. According to virtue ethics, “we know what is morally correct because it is what the virtuous person or one who has good characters would do” (module 7). Virtue ethics is different than the theory of utilitarianism and deontologism. The action isn’t judged by its outcome or rule but by a person who acts. Virtue ethics looks deeply into a person’s soul. It looks for a person’s good characteristics. It claims that no matter what you do as long as your are a virtuous person, your action is morally correct. For instance, a honest person is put into a situation where he has to choose either to tell his Mom about his Dad’s affair or not to. He loves both of his parents. He knows his Mom would leave the house if she knew the truth. He nevers wants them to be separated. His Dad will be in big trouble if his secret gets revealed. But, it wouldn’t be fair for Mom staying home and cooking for the family while Dad is happy with another woman. Also, he never hides things from his parents before. Therefore, he decides to tell his Mom the truth despite of the fear of separation and Dad being mad at him. We are not born with innate good character traits. We develop good potential from time to time as we grow. In order to develop virtues, we have to keep practicing them until they become a habit.
Evil takes a prominent role in the classic adventure novel Watership Down, and the author, Richard Adams, introduces many old and new reactions to evil as the story progresses. Richard Adams makes his point very clear, there is evil everywhere on Earth, and it can even be present the downs of the English countryside. Richard Adams explores this idea of evil through many different forms: foxes, badgers, birds, humans, and the earth itself. The novel shows the readers these responses so, in turn, the reader knows the correct way to respond to evil accordingly. In Watership Down, while running away was the easiest way to respond to evil, the rabbits looked to the natural world and fought back as well.
As mentions before socialism is the doctrine that espouses public ownership or control of a major means of production. It aims to achieve an equitable and efficient distribution of social goods and greater economic planning then exist under capitalism. Although the central concerns of socialism appears to be economic its ramifications extend to the moral, social and political realms, in fact together with nationalism, it is the leading ideological and political movement of the 20th century.
Owning a farm where you can “live offa the fatta the lan’” is George and Lennie’s dream (57). Where they can have crops,“a little house. . . a room to ourself[themselves]”,and of course animals especially rabbits (58). The farm for George will be a place he can be independent while still taking care of Lennie,where he can be his own boss in a place of security and comfort. The farm for Lennie would be a sanctuary from a world that does not understand him. There would be a responsibility for him to tend the rabbits, the attribute of the farm that excites him most, while still being with
“Wade in the Water” is an excerpt from Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. His masterpiece Revelations was created in1960 and it reflects his experience and memories of growing up in Texas. “Wade in the Water” is a dance within Revelations that shows us a traditional baptism ceremony that takes place in a river. Alvin Ailey’s “Wade in the Water” shows us the hope that blacks had of someday being free. The baptism signifies the faith and hope of blacks being free from slavery and beginning a new life with freedom. For example, in (1:23-1:40) we see three male dancers with what look like tree branches “cleansing” the air from evil spirits before the baptism takes place. In (1:16-1:23) we see seven dancer taking two steps forward and two steps back with their hands together, like they were praying, and two other dancers with their hands up, as if they were asking god for help.
Accordingly, one idea or fact that is often raised to differentiate socialism from communism is that socialism in general is the political movement that refers to an economic system in that they believe that the state should be in charge of all important producing industries thus taking hold of the control of free market in order to promote economic parity and egalitarianism. Theoretically, socialism seeks to distribute wealth equally among its citizens in a way that the rich don’t take
Socialism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation.
Socialism is the underlying motivation behind communist movements in history. Socialists believe that it is unjust for a small amount of people to own the biggest portion of the wealth in society. This idea lead to the concept of a communist society, in which the existence of private property is eliminated in favor of government-owned property being shared among all it’s people. The government would provide jobs and care for all people equally. The idea was that through communism, there would be no social classes, thus eliminating alienation for any of the people in the society.
Socialism Socialism is a type of economic system, a political movement, and a social theory. Socialism is based on the idea that governments should own and control a nation's resources rather than individuals. Socialism was first used to describe opposition to the free enterprise and market economies. The Industrial Revolution was the cause of many social problems. Long work hours, low pay, and poor working conditions caused Americans to first consider socialism.