Watership Down by Richard Adams

            The author of Watership Down, Richard Adams, created the story on a long car ride to entertain his children. The story ended up lasting longer than the road trip did so he used it as a bedtime story for his two daughters. It was not until one of them suggested that it should be a book, that he even considered writing it down. The story itself has a very romantic theme, dealing with rabbits representing us as single-minded people and nature giving us different obstacles to overcome. Even though it was created for children it is not only entertaining, but also has broad themes that relate to everyday lives for adults.

After Fiver had a premonition about his warren being destroyed by humans the rabbits that chose to leave become very wary of people. They spend half of the novel searching for a safe place that they can settle, where people cannot hurt them. The rabbits’ main enemy throughout the book is humans. Although, in the last few chapters Hazel is mulled half to death when a young girl finds and picks him up, changing the way he feels about people. She keeps him safe until her mother’s doctor arrives and shows him. These two people save Hazels life.

Society cannot put everyone into a category, which is what most people do. A few blonde girls make a stupid remark and now all blondes are dumb; a few girls are shy and now all women are inferior; a few Spanish come over illegally and now they are all criminals; a few African American people are uneducated and now they are all low class; a few radicals attacked and terrorized people and now all Muslims are terrorists; a few white people had slaves and now they are all racist. As a human race we categorize people based on the first detail we know about them and separate them into a tiny boxes with other people who may or may not happen to share that one same detail as them. This is a habit that everyone has and that everyone has trouble breaking, even if they know it is wrong. But it needs to be broken. Sadly, usually the first detail we can find out about a person is their race and ethnicity. If we can stop making premature judgments about others, we can wipe away our prejudices and focus on what lays behind the masks we create, whether it is good or bad.

People all too often associate their identity with their apperances. Where you are from is an important part of who you are, but you should not hide behind it. There are many people who go along with these stereotypes just because they think that is what they are supposed to be, when in reality they just need to stop focusing on it so much. We can never find out whom a person truly is if we cannot get past these stereotypes to get to know them. The person may be good, bad, or somewhere in between, but at least the judgment will be based on them as a person and not their external appearances. Everyone is capable of good and evil, not just someone who is different. It is easier to blame people who are different because not as many people will stand up for them, but if we look a little deeper we are all the same and we all want the same things. We all have the power to stop stereotypes. If we as a society decided that it was no longer an issue than it would cease to be one.

            The rabbits did not realize this until they came across an evil warren that they tried to take does from, but they have spent so long focusing on all of these other potential threats that they did not realize that their biggest enemy is other rabbits. This directly translates over into our lives because we spend so much time worrying about everyone else that we do not realize that the only thing that can hold you back from achieving what you want in life is you. The main reason that people judge others is because of a lack of self-esteem, which is also the same reason that people hold themselves back. I do not believe that this is a coincidence. The same people who burden themselves with this confinement are also holding themselves back because of this. If we could move past all of this and rise above it as a people then the world would be a much better place to live in and that was the main message the book was trying to convey. There is a war at the end of the novel between the two warrens because they feel as if they cannot coexist. One group’s success does not make another group less successful. Watership Down is a timeless classic that everyone must read in their lifetime. It is an astonishing story about a group of rabbits that are just looking for a better life for themselves and their family, with an elusive deeper meaning.