Not A Box Analysis

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis is a children’s book narrating from the viewpoint of the protagonist, a rabbit, who throughout the story indignantly attempts to convince the audience that the cardboard box he possesses is something more, something remarkable. Objectively, the work raises the question not only to children but to all people, of how the boxes that surround our imagination seem to become sturdier as people progress in age while simultaneously querying: how does creativity and perseverance affect a person’s view of daily mundane situations? In whole, Portis approaches the subject of creativity in a simplistic manner—the rabbit is left unnamed, the pages only vary in solid colors, and the depictions generally consist of rudimentary lines and curves—yet while her approach is unadorned with lengthy narrative, it still simultaneously manages to convey a raw message, through comical pictures, for an audience that is not limited in age. Such as when the rabbit is asked, “Why are you sitting on a box?” by a character that the reader

Also, there is another situation in

ich the rabbit is once again asked: “What are you doing on top of that box?” to which the rabbit (without fail in any situation) retaliates whiling standing atop a mountain, with: “It’s not a box!” (Portis) In this, the rabbit who in a sense symbolizes the reader as a person, does not allow the “other character” (who in