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<I>Watership Down</I> Volume 13 Number 4 Article 23 6-15-1987 Watership Down:The Individual & Society Randy C. Welch Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Welch, Randy C. (1987) "Watership Down:The Individual & Society," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 13 : No. 4 , Article 23. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol13/iss4/23 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Additional Keywords Adams, Richard. Watership Down—Social and political aspects This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol13/iss4/23 Page 48 MYTHLORE 50: Summer 1987 Watership D own:The Individual & Society Randy C. Welch In Watership Down, Richard Adams weaves first discovering him - but that was to save a number of themes into the fabric of the the gull's lif e in order to benefit the whole story, one of the most pervasive being warren later by solving the crucial problem society's treatment of individual talents. of finding mates. The rest of the time, he Each of the four warrens that Adams describes holds the reins of power loosely, encouraging affects individuals in distinctly different d isc u ssio n and t o le r a t in g d is s e n t , and ways and only one, Watership Down, truly relying on persuasion and consensus formation appreciates and fosters the unique gifts of to arrive at group policies. He leads by its members. example, not force, as Blackberry te lls him: "You go in front and take the risks first." Hazel-rah incorporates this ethic as (Richard Adams, Watership Down. New York: part of his leadership style and therein lies Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1972, p. his success. He relies on the talents of 137.) He is the first to begin digging the other rabbit»s when he knows his own to be Honeycomb and the first to forage insects to inferior. Unlike most leaders, he does not feed Kehaar. have a problem with pride or a runaway ego. When the initial embassy goes to Efrafra, Yet another of Hazel's personal traits Hazel readily concedes its leadership role to that makes him a good leader is his openness Holly, who is more impressive in appearance to change. The Threarah's conservatism led and as a speaker. He depends upon to his downfall while Hazel's open mind Blackberry's superior mind to devise a trick enhanced his success. Saving a mouse and a to fo il Woundwort, Bigwig's immense strength seagull was a revolutionary idea scorned by to defend the warren, and of course Fiver's ordinary rabbits, yet Hazel saw it as an in s ig h t to g iv e him d ir e c t io n . It is innovation which could benefit his community. significant that when Hazel deviated from As it proved, each rescue played an essential this policy, disaster ensued: ignoring r o le in e s t a b lis h in g and co n tin u in g the Fiver's warning against the Nuthanger raid warren. Without them there would have been nearly cost Hazel his life. no does and no early warning of Woundwort's sneak attack. Hazel was also willing to use Hazel is an organizer. Only he can keep innovations such as boats even though he did the rabbits together on their migration when not understand them. He was a pragmatic several times they would have scattered, such rabbit, adopting techniques old or new as as at the river crossing or in the common. long as they served the common good. His He directs the rabbits' activ ities because he approach was an eclectic one: copying has the courage to take the initiative. He Cowslip's great burrow and Woundwort's hole shows this early on by proposing the concealment practices as useful inventions recruitment of a large-scale departure from while rejecting the grimmer aspects'of both Sandleford rather than simply clearing off so c ie tie s. with a few friends. He does so out of a feeling of responsibility that if he is Such is the interplay of society and escaping a catastrophe, he must help others individual: Hazel's g ifts as a leader shaped to do so too. Responsibility, of course, the society of Watership Down, which in turn always marks a good leader. encouraged the expression of the individual gifts of its members. Without Hazel's Another mark of a good leader is his exceptional a b ilitie s, Watership Down and its protection of the weak. Early on Hazel rabbits would not have been exceptional resolves to protect the rights of the either. And i f his rabbits had not been smallest rabbits, Fiver and Pipkin, against a talented, Hazel's leadership would not have bully like Bigwig. When Strawberry first been successful. joins the troupe, Hazel protects him against the others' hostility until he can establish In contrast, General Woundwort was a his own niche. He does so again with very effective leader but not a good one, Groundsel and the other surrendered since he benefited neither the commonwealth Efrafrans. nor the individual growth of his subjects. To be sure, he gave them protection and long Hazel's concern for all individuals lives, but their lives were without freedom, under his authority manifests itself again in excitement, or fulfillment and on the whole his attention to their injuries. He takes it seemed without purpose. Woundwort was more upon him self to remove Pipkin's thorn and interested in rabbits as a quantitative clean Buckthorn's and Holly's wounds. He measure of his success as a leader, while cares not only about his community's social Hazel chose a qualitative scale of how happy, health but its physical health as well. free, and compatible his rabbits were. Hazel's rule is lax and tolerant, Woundwort, like Hazel, was an organizer, allowing his rabbits great personal freedom. but he carried this propensity to extremes Only once does he coerce his subjects - and organized every facet of a rabbit's life, forcing them to dig a burrow for Kehaar after whereas Hazel organized rabbits only on a MYTHLORE 50: Summer 1987 Page 49 temporary basis to meet some pressing need and it either discouraged or warped like building a shelter. Woundwort was individual talents towards this goal. obsessed w ith c o n tr o l and determ ined Leadership was one stifled talent since, as precisely when and how a rabbit could eat, Fiver pointed out, a leader must keep his sleep, pass hraka, or show his nose above p eople from death and the ra b b its had ground. His system of o ff ic e r s , se n tr ie s, willingly accepted death in return for and runners was remarkably efficient and prosperity and did not want anyone to lead reveals his talents as an administrator. His them back to san ity and l i f e . Cowslip and courage was unquestionable as he demonstrated his rabbits attacked Holly's survivors for by fighting elil without hesitation, their association with Hazel, since Hazel had including taking on a dog after being torn up led Strawberry and his own folk away from the by Bigw ig. And though he was a fr a id of warren after revealing its folly. Leaders Bigwig and his supposedly greater Chief who could see the truth and act on it were to Rabbit, Woundwort was doggedly determined to be crushed at a ll costs; even asking "Where?" defeat them when other rabbits wanted to run hinted at the warren's awful truth and such away. Using his courage, Woundwort led by inquiry was also stifled automatically. example as well as by coercive administration. Other talents were encouraged in perverted forms to glorify the warren and Yet whatever his talents, he was a mask its folly. The rabbits were proud of bureaucrat gone wrong. Hazel's g if t s made their mosaics and singing and dancing even Watership Down a healthy society while though these were unnatural for rabbits. Woundwort's s t if le d Efrafra. Individual Their wisest folk and visionaries were so abilities at t'he pinnacle of a power twisted by the warren's dark secret and their hierarchy are crucial in determining how own moral sellout to materialism that they other individuals behave. Woundwort found, used their talents to justify and exalt the but perhaps never admitted to himself, that warren, not denounce it. Only Fiver, an coercion and oppression breed good servants outsider, could use his insight to see but not good leaders.
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