Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
For a fun rainy day activity, we suggest making a chart that shows human stuff and rabbit responses in this book, like so:
| Human Stuff | What It Means for Rabbits |
| Human road | Stinky: "the strange, strong smells of tar and oil" (10.25). |
| Human pets (cats and dogs) | Danger, Will Robinson! |
| Poison gas | Rabbits die in droves |
| Cigarettes, "burning white sticks" | Usually leads to danger, like the farmer trapping Cowslip's rabbits or the construction men smoking before they start poisoning rabbits |
| YouTube | Cute cat videos are terrifying for rabbits |
Okay, so maybe the rabbits in Watership Down don't have access to YouTube. And sometimes, there are human-related things that don't mean death and danger, like Lucy Cane, who rescues Hazel. (Although, to be clear, Lucy rescues Hazel from the family cat, so… Let's call it even.) But almost everything human-related is no good for bunnies and not very natural.