preview

Critical Analysis Of Watership Down

Decent Essays

Watership Down Literary Analysis
Good leaders ensure the world continues to advance. In contrast, bad leaders allow cruelty to spread and are often over controlling, taking away the freedom of their people. Richard Adams’s Watership Down is a story about rabbits trying to establish a warren, a society. Hazel, the main character of the book, has been informed that his warren is in danger. He leads a group of rabbits to try and start a new warren in a better environment, away from peril. While trying to find this location, Hazel and his rabbits stumble upon another warren, Efrafa. The secretive warren is led by a fierce rabbit, General Woundwort. Though Hazel and General Woundwort are both leaders, they lead in two distinct ways. Hazel and General Woundwort are drastically different leaders because they take power in contrasting ways, have incongruent methods of leadership, and view their role as leader differently.
Hazel and General Woundwort are contrastive leaders because they acquire power differently. Hazel assumes power through respect. He earns the respect of the rabbits in his warren, lending them to establish Hazel as leader. The respect of the warren is earned when Hazel leads the rabbits across the common, even while they are all exhausted. The rabbits are so impressed, Blackberry says “Oh, Hazel...you're what I call a Chief Rabbit!” (57). The Chief Rabbit is the leader of the warren. This title often belongs to the strongest of the rabbits, but Hazel is not

Get Access