Watership Down Analysis

Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 is a description about the civil rights movement that focuses on Martin Luther King Jr and incorporates the lives of other civil rights activists, organizations, and takes a deeper look at the era from the Supreme Court Ruling of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to President Kennedy’s assassination. Furthermore, Branch introduces numerous people within the African American communities that gave rise to the civil rights movement as well as those individuals that came into being as the movement surged forward.

Tests, Allies, and Enemies; the hero is tested and must sort out his or her allegiances in the Special World. The rabbits’ strength is test many times throughout the novel. Some of which are when the group of rabbits cross the river for the first time, the group finds that the smaller rabbits cannot swim. They work as a team to get everyone across, using a floating log and pushing the smaller rabbits across. Another test of strength was surviving through the Warren of Snares, where they were welcomed and treated fantastically by Cowslip. Shortly after they arrived, Fiver noticed something off about the warren. Bigwig, was captured in a snare and soon after the other rabbits were attacked.

The short story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod is narrated by a man who comes from a fishing family. His mother’s side of the family has forever lived and worked by the sea and continues this tradition. The narrator’s father always wanted to be an academic, but worked on the boat to support his family. Through this passage it is evident that the parents’ characters clash in many aspects of their lives and are in constant conflict. MacLeod demonstrates this through the use of repetition, the contrast in other unrelated ideas, and through information that is withheld.

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.

In the short story, “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod, symbolism is used to represent an abstract idea. The boat, being a major symbol of the story was the way of life for the family. As the story goes on, the boat starts to make the family feel confined giving them a choice to leave or stay with the boat. There were symbols that impacted the story that had connection towards the boat. Chain bracelets, the father’s clothes, the books that the father read are all symbols that tied to the boat. The father's chain bracelets and clothes represent the father feeling trapped as a fisherman since he never changes out of them. We find out more about the characters and their personal connection with the boat and the other symbols and what it means to them. The family starts to fall apart due to the kids learning about the father’s books leading to them moving away from home. Symbolism is used when one thing is meant to represent something else adding meaning and emotion to the story which is well represented throughout the story.

Depression has the ability to control one’s behavior. In Rabbit Run, John Updike uses Janice and Rabbit to portray depression’s manipulative way of destroying a person. Through many articles, it is explained how the effects of depression cause a downwards spiral of self destruction. Many authors have explored the effects of depression and linked it alcohol abuse as well. This can be easily compared to Janice’s alcohol consumption throughout the book and how it lead her to her downfall and eventual murder of her daughter as well as Rabbit’s indecisive mind. As Rabbit runs from Janice in an attempt to chase his youth, he is just as numb as his wife. Janice drinks her pain away. However, this does not only affect Janice, but her whole family. Her kids are dragged into this situation as well. As one character struggles through depression and all that results from it, the rest of her family is dragged through it with her.

The story Seabiscuit takes place in California in a time where industries were booming. In this period the great depression also took place and threw out the movie short clips of this time period are shown. The main protagonist, Charles S. Howard is initially a successful automotive mechanic who’s main focus is wealth but his life later takes a tragic twist when his son dies in a car accident, and his wife leaves him shortly after. However not everything is bad luck for the kind hearted Charles as he later married Marcela Zabala and together they formed a new life. John M. Pollard or “Red” happens to be the antagonist and his displayed as a courageous boy raised in a middle class family but due to financial problems he is forced to leave his family. The story “Seabiscuit” depicts the life of Charles S. Howard and many other people’s life during the Great Depression.

The book Watership Down by Richard Adams, is a story that was once told to his children and has been put into a novel. The book shows us the ups and downs during a journey of many rabbits. These rabbits talk in their own language and embark on a crazy journey to a new land. Sandleford is the current home of the rabbits and their journey will take them to Cowslips Warren, there part time home. We will focus on life in Sandleford, the life in Cowslips Warren and the individual rabbits who chose to go on this journey together.

The film, Good will hunting (Bender et al., 1997), is an American classic flick which is lauded for its fresh and ordinary approach towards depicting situations that is realistic and relatable. In the film, Good Will Hunting (Bender et al., 1997), this is clearly show up that, savagery Will Hunting experienced as a youngster and after that shows as a grown-up; along with flashes of a sweet attitude towards his companions and mental virtuoso. It is about a young man struggle to find himself. He is unwillingly treated to a psychologist just to keep him out of trouble. In this journey, he finds out what he is and what matters to him the most. This movie uses strong and effective technique on evoking emotions and empathy to the audience through exposing them to various technicities of filmmaking such as color, camera technique and many more. After reading the book (OpenStax 2016), we can have adopted different kinds of psychological theory to explain this movie. Good will hunting is related with Erikson’s psychosocial theory of personal development (Neu-Freudian theory),Freud’s psychoanalytical theory and the five-factor model of personality (Big-five: OCEAN).

The setting of Alistair Macleod’s short story, The Boat, complements the setting of Alden Nowlan’s poem, Warren Pryor.  Each of these writing pieces contain the element of a smaller town with a tight knit community.  In the short story The Boat, our community is a Nova Scotian community whose primary industry is fishing.  This results in most of the members of the community partaking in the fishing lifestyle.  Another influential location this writing piece takes place in is inside of the house, “which was one of about fifty that marched around the horseshoe of [his] harbour,” (Macleod 263).  Most of the homes in this town are situated close to the water as it is there where most of the men work as fishermen.  Inside the house was his father's room where “magazines and books covered the bureau,” (Macleod 265).  It was in their father’s room where the children discover their love of reading and become more dedicated to their schooling.  Both the short story and the poem contain the setting of a school, which is symbolic as it is their education that allows the characters to be free of their obligations and the way of their town.  Finally, the setting takes place on the Jenny Lynn, “she was what Nova Scotians called a Cape Island boat and was designed for the small inshore fishermen,” (Macleod 262) and it is on this boat where the father and son make their final journey out to sea.  Likewise, the poem Warren Pryor takes place in another resource based community, however, this

Smooth Sailing is a private company that operates one cruise ship. Recently, pirate activity in the area where the cruise ship operates has increased, thus affecting the cruise ship’s potential future cash flows. The cash flow decline has directly contributed to a decline in the overall fair value of the cruise ship.

There are four different warens with very different systems of power. The Sandleford warren is a warren where power is those with a title. The Watership Down and Cowslip warrens are both warrens where power is those with wit. The Efrafa warren is a warren where power is strength. Power is distributed between the rabbits by those with wit, strength, and a title.

In the movie, Ocean’s 11, upon his release from prison, Danny Ocean seeks to carry out one last job, a 3 in 1 casino robbery. Immediately, Ocean seeks out his smart and trustworthy friend, Rusty, who must help him coordinate the ultimate plan. After carefully running through the concept and evaluating the chances of success, they decide to go with it. Together, the two carefully develop an effective team, selectively recruiting people they personally know, each with different sets of skills and knowledge needed to perform certain critical tasks. More importantly, the two masterminds pitch the idea to Ruben, whom they know loathes Benedict, the owner of the casinos they wish to rob, almost instantly he climbs on board.

John Updike's novel, Rabbit, Run, is about a man named Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Rabbit is a brainless guy whose career as a high school basketball star peaked at age 18. In his wife's view, he was, before their early, hasty marriage, already drifting downhill.

Differing opinions exist regarding the purpose and usefulness of a college education. While attending college appears to be a legitimate course of action to advance one’s educational and professional aspirations for some, it may seem senseless when considering the rise of college tuitions coupled with the fact that a college degree does not necessarily guarantee a job. Either way, defining the value and worth of a college education remains subjective. However, in the film, Good Will Hunting, the importance or perceived importance of a college education seems to be rejected at large, namely by the main character, Will Hunting, and his psychologist. Specifically, two main perspectives are shown regarding the frame of mind one should possess regarding education, one that values academic achievement and jobs, and the other that rejects those ideals and focuses primarily on self-discovery to figure out what is wanted in life. Consequently, both perspectives result in different behaviors among the characters in the film. Although Good Wil Hunting accurately highlights some of the major downfalls of a college education, it unfairly criticizes the emphasis college cultures places on achievement and future success. Because of this, the film takes devalues a college education and subtly frames it as a waste of resources through overtly ridiculing it.