How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"They forgot the ways of wild rabbits. They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price? They found out other marvelous arts to take the place of tricks and old stories. They danced in ceremonious greeting. They sang songs like the birds and made Shapes on the walls; and though these could help them not at all, yet they passed the time and enabled them to tell themselves that they were splendid fellows, the very flower of Rabbitry, cleverer than magpies." (17.91)
Fiver explains the relationship between art and society very well here. (Fiver knows so much he's probably aware that he's in a book, and that we're writing about him. Hi, Fiver.) According to Fiver, Cowslip's warren didn't need stories to inspire cleverness when they can't clever their way out of the snares of the farmer. So instead, they used art to make themselves feel better about being weak. So art isn't always used to help. Sometimes it's used to make someone feel better about a bad situation instead of doing something about that bad situation.
Quote #8
Hazel and his companions had suffered extremes of grief and horror during the telling of Holly's tale. Pipkin had cried and trembled piteously at the death of Scabious, and Acorn and Speedwell had been seized with convulsive choking as Bluebell told of the poisonous gas that murdered underground. Yet, as with primitive humans, the very strength and vividness of their sympathy brought with it a true release. Their feelings were not false or assumed. While the story was being told, they heard it without any of the reserve or detachment that the kindest of civilized humans retains as he reads his newspaper. To themselves, they seemed to struggle in the poisoned runs and to blaze with rage for poor Pimpernel in the ditch. This was their way of honoring the dead. (22.1)
Even stories that are—shudder—real can have some of the same effects as the myths of El-ahrairah. Just as the rabbits listening to El-ahrairah myths (above) felt like they were experiencing those wonders, so the rabbits listening to Holly's and Bluebell's story of the destroyed warren feel like it's happening to them. In that sense, storytelling also makes everyone feel connected and lets them feel something together.
Quote #9
At once he realized that this was no story. Yet he had heard the like before, somewhere. The rapt air, the rhythmic utterance, the intent listeners—what was it they recalled? Then he remembered the smell of carrots, and Silverweed dominating the crowd in the great burrow. But these verses went to his heart as Silverweed's had not. (35.43)
Back in Cowslip's warren, Bigwig was all like "poetry, whatever" when Silverweed recited his poem about giving up. But now that Bigwig sees rabbits oppressing other rabbits, Hyzenthlay's poem goes to his heart. So either Hyzenthlay is a better poet (possible) or Bigwig has become more sensitive (possible). At the least, we like him more here.