Childhood classic provokes thought

All Things Literary

On every trip I’ve ever taken, I’ve brought along a book. In my family, it is a sin to travel without a good novel. My little sister never gets into a car without one, whether it is for a cross country trip or a ride to the grocery store. This summer, before flying to Colorado, I had a hard time finding a book in which I wanted to invest time. I settled on one of my childhood favorites — "Watership Down."

I first read "Watership Down," an endearing story about rabbits, in seventh grade after my mother suggested it to me. Personally, I shy away from books about traveling because they all fall into the same pattern. The traveler doesn’t want to embark on a long journey, then they do, then they get in trouble, solve it and come home.

This book followed a similar pattern, but there was something endearing about the rabbits. The imaginary world that Richard Adams creates fascinated me. The leadership structure within the warrens where the rabbits live and the invented words that they speak sparked my imagination.

Reading the book in college, I’ve uncovered the deeper meaning of the story. You discover strange things when reading an old book again. What caught my attention most was the notion of how humans treat nature.

Throughout the book, humans are criticized for relationships with nature. We get to see how we treat animals. The way that our society views nature is scary. We slowly have tried to take over the world, and rarely pay enough attention to the natural life around us — from the animals to their habitats. It makes one wonder if at some point we will run out of places to expand.

The notion of starting over in a foreign place is an idea with which most are familiar. The rabbits were forced to leave the home they had known all their lives; they had to travel to a new place to build a new warren.

The rabbits’ travel reminded me that we all have done this same reestablishing since coming to college.

We left our childhood homes, stretched our legs and created a new home for ourselves.