Foreshadowing In Watership Down

Tales that are enchanted and filled with remarkable characters are always endearing. The curious novel Watership Down by Richard Adams is a unique tale about rabbits who live in a very human world. This tale begins with Fiver and Hazel, two brothers. Fiver is concerned about a great danger he feels is coming to destroy their rabbit warren. This foreshadowing suggests that if all the rabbits do not leave they will die. However, when the brothers propose the issue to the chief rabbit, of the warren, they are turned away and considered worrisome and senseless. Hazel and Fiver as well as a few other rabbits decide it’s best to leave the warren before the terrible disaster comes. Thus, they began their epic journey full of obstacles and new problems.

Even the characters that are only in the story briefly are important to the narrative as a whole. Well after Hazel leads his band of rabbits to their new home a kestrel flies over the field, near their holes, in search of prey. The rabbits give a warning thump, and they all run to their holes. A poor field mouse is caught out in the open far from any cover. Hazel decides to help the mouse to escape his doom. He made the decision quickly to save the mouse, “Run,’ he said. ‘Here quick.’ The mouse looked at him, but did not move. Hazel spoke again and the mouse began to suddenly run toward him as the Kestrel turned and slid sideways and downward.” (Adams 151) Even though the mouse seems to be a minor character he becomes important towards the end. After being saved, he promises something to Hazel, “… You ‘elp a mouse. One time a mouse ‘elp a you. You want ‘im ‘e come.” (Adams 155) This is in a way foreshadowing of what is to come. The rabbits do end up using the mouse and his family’s help several times, and without them they would not have been able to survive. Helping the mouse also gives Hazel the idea of helping other animals, when they are in need, as well. This becomes extremely important later in the book too, and leads to the introduction of Kehaar. Being a seagull, Kehaar was an unlikely companion to rabbits, however they become great friends. He eventually aids the rabbits in their search for does. He leads

Even though it sounds like a child’s book, it was written in a very adult manner. One of the major things to note when reading Watership Down is that Richard writes as if he was a rabbit who could talk. Many of the words in Adams’s made up rabbit language are onomatopoeic, for example, the word for a tractor is, hrududu. Words such as these give the novel a certain tone when you read it, and in a way it sets the scene. It makes the characters seem more realistic and understandable. When creating his rabbit language Adams pulled influence from other languages. He picked and chose words from several cultures that held more meaning then they could simply in English. Watership Down’s characters mislead most readers into thinking the book will be childish, while in truth it is a book anyone from any age could