My name is Shaianne I am a Junior and I was given the task by my British Lit teacher to read a book called “Watership Down,” I was surprised and confused to find out it was a book about bunnies, then started getting nervous looking at the length, then freaking out looking at when I saw when I had to finish it by. It was a rough class period, but my teacher was great and calmed me down saying if I set myself goals and stayed on top of them then it would be fine. After my internal break down and getting into the book I learned that it is a pretty neat book. And I ended up finding a deeper meaning in it, though this book has more than one. I’ll explain one that I’ve gotten out of the book. But first let me give you a brief summary of the book;
The story “Watership Down” is a book that reveals a whole new world to the readers. A rabbit’s point of view, where there are societies of rabbits that all work differently, with different styles of leadership, and different beliefs. Then there is that social power structure, all societies have different types of leaders a main role in society. It’s different in all societies; Monarchy, Democracy, Dictatorship, they all are run differently, based on the style. But in most cases there is a hierarchy of roles that you are given at birth. Now in the book some rabbits don’t agree with their societies morals, the way it’s run, or scared for their own safety. But they don’t leave due to being afraid of the unknown (or they just can’t). But in Hazel’s brother and his own case, Fiver Hazel’s brother has vision that something bad is going to happen to their warren/and they think it’s best to leave to save themselves. As Fiver has had many visions in the past that were proven correct. They try to get as many other bunnies as they can to join them, warn them, save them. But most denied his accusations, leaving them to take only a small group of bunnies. Hazel involuntarily becomes their leader in some sort but a good one. He develops many qualities throughout the book, through events that happen. The group come face to face with many different communities of bunnies. None of which had a perfect system running, or good at all actually. But all of the groups that caused them trouble only made everyone stronger in the end. After meeting a few groups and realizing none of them had what they were looking for in a community, they made their own, naming it “Watership Down.”
“Rabbit underground, rabbit safe and sound.” This is a quote directly from the book, it is a good representation of what I’m going to try and prove by the end of the letter. Just because you are safe and sound, or what I saw the quote as, just because you are sound in your comfort zone. That doesn’t mean you have to stay there, you can’t ever progress towards what you want if you stay in one place. We all have the American dream to become anything we put our mind to, while the phrase is used and said by many. Almost everyone you meet will deny their capability to accomplish their dreams. “The whole warren? Don’t be silly. They won’t come. They’ll say you’re out of your wits.” This was Hazel talking to his little brother, but even though he knew no one would believe anything they said they still tried. Not everyone is going to have faith in you, don’t let it stop you from pursuing your dreams.
While reading the book I watched how the main character Hazel has grown throughout the book, grown not only as a leader but with his character as well. The best thing about seeing him grow is knowing he was just an ordinary rabbit; it only takes a small opportunity to jump at for someone to become who you want to be. He helped prove that it doesn’t matter what your background it, or what class in society you came from, you can accomplish anything if you do the work. Sometimes when you jump at the opportunities provided for you, life may push you towards another path. Maybe you didn’t see that future for yourself, maybe you don’t even want the future you see later down the line. But you Hazel’s story proved that you should always look at what you see best for the future. Life is full of twists and turns the perfect future you saw before can alter as life goes on, you should learn to adjust with it. That’s what happened with Hazel he didn’t want to become anyone’s leader, he just wanted to get away from his warren. But good thing he did because their new warren wouldn’t of made it this far without him.
I personally have experiences that can relate to Hazel and his journey. I think we all do, if not you eventually have to. Without jumping at opportunities thrown to you, it won’t allow you to progress toward your dream. I am really bad at finding what I like, and what clubs to join. So I didn’t join any for a long time, I was too scared. But an opportunity was given to me to join a program that helps you prepare for your future, it just so happened to have a club as well. I finally found something that I enjoyed, loved, and was passionate about. But I wouldn’t of been able to get where I am now without doing the one of two things; one, be afraid that I will fail or not be welcomed, too afraid to leave my comfort zone. Or I could do two, give myself one last push to have a chance to open up a gateway to so many new opportunities. I chose two, despite people saying I’m not good enough (people seriously told me that), I trusted my gut feeling and did what I knew I needed to do to better myself. Push yourself and open up your gateway of opportunities.
There are many people throughout history who wouldn’t be where they are now if they didn’t push themselves. They broke past the walls put up for them in society, and became who they needed to be. They helped prove that you don’t have to be of a higher class in society to get far in life, just jump at the opportunities provided and you can accomplish anything. President Abraham Lincoln was someone who push past the walls of society and did what he knew was right and what he believed. He didn’t come from a high class in society either, he was still able to get to his leadership position.
If you don’t already you should learn to push yourself to your limits. You should always want to push yourself to be the best you can be; you can’t get anything done if just stay in your comfort zone forever. It’s the only way you can get what you’re looking for in life, if you don’t push yourself then you will stay in the same spot in your life forever never get anywhere. When you push yourself towards opportunities and events provided for you (if they aren’t provided go look for some, or create some) you may find that what you were looking for changed during your journey towards your goal. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’ll never know what you can do if you don’t leap into action.
Turns out this book is about more than bunnies and their lives. Bunnies can apparently relate to us, or maybe we can relate to bunnies? Whatever the case is, I surprisingly really enjoyed this book. Who knew I- I mean we could get so much out of this book learn so much from this book. Of course we already knew all of this, but it helps knowing a bunny accomplished his dreams. So who’s to say we can’t?
