Review: Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down is not your average fairy tale about rabbits. By using talking animals in a way never before seen, Richard Adams created a suspense thriller that surpassed my expectations. Each rabbit is unique in his own way, with personalities and characteristics that work together perfectly. This is a story of heroism, adventure, and survival, which brings the reader into a whole new world of rabbit folklore and mythology.

"'You know, there's something queer about the warren this evening, although I can't tell exactly what it is'" (Adams 5). This statement, made by a young, awkward creature named Fiver, starts the journey of a lifetime, from a rabbit point-of-view. Along with his brother, Hazel, and a few other believers, Fiver leads the way to a new home that is free of danger. Eventually, men, of course, destroy their warren, and most of the rabbits that stay behind die, including the chief rabbit. Fiver's small group, led by Hazel, treks in unknown territory and encounter things of terror, amazement, and incomprehensibility.

They first stumble upon a rabbit named Cowslip, whose warren has something extremely strange about it. The warren builds stone idols, stores food inside the tunnel to eat, and never ask, or answer, questions that begin with "Where…?" Bigwig, one of Hazel's bunch, is caught in a rabbit trap, and the other rabbits at the warren refuse to help. It is finally revealed that there is a man keeping these rabbits alive with food, but in turn kills a couple every once in a while, for food. What was first heaven turns out to be the worst hell of all, ignorance.

The rabbits make new friends as their flight progresses, including a gull named Kehaar, who becomes vital to the survival of the new warren. Efrafa, the warren that stands between the rabbits and freedom, is the biggest obstacle that they have ever had to overcome. With the guidance of Hazel, the intelligence of Blackberry, and the strength and willpower of Bigwig, the rabbits conquer Efrafa, and send their vicious leader, Woundwort, into a crazed anger, which eventually leads to his demise.

When the rabbits finally find their new home, Watership Down, they realize something extremely critical to their survival that they all had forgotten about. It turns out that they had come all this way without a single female. If they were to have anything that resembled a warren, they would need does to create offspring. Through more thrills and courageous feats, which almost brings an end to Hazel at one point, they collect plenty of does to keep the warren going for years to come.

The setting of Watership Down is in the downs of England. The time that the story takes place doesn't matter, because it is human nature, and the rabbits have no real concept of time. The downs are very hilly, grassy, treeless expanses with farms and grazing areas scattered over the whole.

Adams creates perfectly suspenseful tale, with the "climax," or peak of the suspense, at the end of each chapter, followed by a very short resolution that pulls the reader into the next chapter. An example of this is at the end of Chapter 19, when it looks like it is the end for Bigwig. It appears as though the Black Rabbit of Inlé, the rabbit version of the Grim Reaper, has called for Bigwig. "'Zorn! Zorn!' cried the dreadful, squealing voice, 'All dead! O zorn!'" (Adams 123). The reader can't help but think that the legend is real and that the Black Rabbit really has come to take Bigwig. The last line of the chapter, though, resolves this by revealing that it is actually Captain Holly, a member of the old Sandleford Warren. Knowing this, the reader wants to read on to find out what has happened to Captain Holly, and how he made it all the way to their warren. I wholly agree with Kenneth Newquist, who states that Watership Down is "the sort of book that draws the reader in, and then doesn't let go until the ride is completely over" (2).

The theme is complex, and yet simple to state. Watership Down is a story of survival: "survival against nature, survival against man, [and] survival against their own kind" (Plot 1). They must struggle to survive the many forces of nature that are so hard to conceive of. Blackberry, the smartest of the group, is able to get them across a river on a plank, even though they are unable to understand how the plank can stand on the water. He plays a great part in the survival of the warren.

Man is the epitome of all things bad to the rabbits. Man is what first brought death to the Sandleford Warren, the rabbits' original home. Man is what follows them along their journey, making sure to get in the way whenever possible, and leaving the rabbits even more hopeless as the story progresses. In the end, though, man plays a few key parts in their survival. The raft that the rabbits escaped on was manmade. If it hadn't been waiting for them, Woundwort and his army would have surely killed them off. It was also a man, with the help of a child, who rescued Hazel from the Nuthanger Farm when the local cat was about to do away with him.

Ironically, the rabbits find it hardest to triumph over their own kind, the biggest hindrance of all. From the very beginning of the tale, other rabbits attempted to rule over them, stopping any attempts to leave the warren. At Cowslip's warren, the secret that was kept from them nearly got Bigwig killed. Their sugarcoated world hid a poison that even they could not taste.

Overall, this story is one of the best. The reader is enthralled by the complexity of the characters, and finds it hard to put the book down. Plot twists and detailed settings drive the story along and paint a picture in the reader's mind. "Just when you think everything is going to be fine, another disaster strikes, but I assure you this is a good-inside-feeling-happy-ending-story!" (Maria 1). I couldn't agree more.

Adams, Richard. Watership Down. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1972.

Maria. "Watership Down." Reviews. 1999. <http://www.smartgirl.com> (15 January 2001)

Newquist, Kenneth. "Watership Down by Richard Adams." Nuketown Bookshelf. 1999. (15 January 2001)

"The Plot." The Novel. (15 January 2001)