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Civic Imagination

Watership Down

Based in Hampshire, England, Watership Down is a political allegory based on global socio-political models of the 20th century that features rabbits as characters. The novel and film both feature the struggles of the Watership Down warren in their travels across the English countryside and their fight for survival from a variety of perils, including other rabbits themselves. From leaving their home warren in order to survive an impending disaster which their leaders ignore, through being at war with an oppressive warren under the command of General Woundwort or seeing death to the eye through the dangers that human create, to finally reaching the peaceful warren they wished for from the very beginning, the story is a thriller about survival with political motivations.

I encountered the story in my teens during literature class at the British School back home, and while initially I was reluctant about it as any other schoolboy is about school reading, I was hooked the moment I started reading. Its main appeal was the use of political undertones to fuel the narrative of migration within an extraordinarily built world.

Through the use of rabbits as characters, author Richard Adams lead me into believing the plot would be tame and “cuddly”, nonetheless it is the entire opposite as it uses the savage reality of nature, in combination with political systems, as a critique of the right wing. The story was easy for me read into as the critique of each political system is done by separating each system across four warrens that have different ways of thinking, ranging from standard Conservatism, through leaders reluctant to change and believe things work the way they are despite other circumstances suggesting otherwise, through liberalism and the left wing in shape of freedom and equality of the protagonists which clashes with an opposing warren based on hierarchies and ranks in a far right-styled dictatorship. The last warren, despite not having a highly impactful role, is an amazing critique of how societies trade their humanity and freedom of speech for safety, security and comfort.

Not only do I find the political tones very appealing, but with the story being entirely based on a journey and as an immigrant myself, this story speaks to me in my own journey to define "home". Having lived in four countries and rarely feeling comfortable in one place makes me feel a lot like the rabbits of Watership Down as they suffer to find the home they wish for so much.

Despite it not being explicitly referenced in contemporary political discussion, I believe Watership Down has very high potential to inspire people across two levels: political uprising and migration. The first being the "revolution" that this small group of rabbits from Sandleford warren initiate in order to escape certain death whilst also looking for a new home, then encountering two other systems on the road that made them feel uncomfortable or endangered.

The second level being that of the travel that finding Watership Down represents for the rabbits, especially in shape of the rabbits' struggles to find a new home, as much like myself other migrants may feel that finding a true home is a challenge and thus the story may tell them that there is still hope despite a journey that seems everlasting and finding places where they may feel unwelcome.

I have shared this story with various friends and colleagues, yet very few of them have identified after I have spoken about my views and analysis of the story. Nonetheless I consider this is a good thing, as it makes the story and its significance more unique for me, which in turn was the original reason I intended to share it with others as I wanted them to understand my feeling as a person that is constantly migrating.

Watership Down full film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1n8E3ntWUg
Woundwort v. Bigwig (Opression v. Freedom): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsTqEUGuYBs

Critique, Politics, Migration, Rabbits, England, UK,

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Contents of this tag:
4. Maus: A Survivor's Tale
11. The Lion King
14. Sailor Moon Sailor Moon is a young teenage girl that learns that she has magical powers that allows her to fight against the evils of the extraterrestrial world. She finds the Sailor Scouts, Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter. Each of them have powers that relate to the symbolism of their planet and a specific superhero outfit that they wear. Based in Neo-futuristic Tokyo the story was released in the 1990’s as a manga and then a television anime came out. It became very popular among teens especially young Asian-American girls because of where it was based although the characters were many depicted as white skin tone.
15. How the tortoise got cracks in his shell
17. Chef "Chef is a film released in 2014 that was written and directed by Jon Favreau who was inspired by his own career in film and love of the culinary arts to create a movie about a popular chef who needs to find his creative spark and fall in love with cooking once more. The film begins in California where Chef Carl Casper lives and works. After receiving a brutally negative review from a well regarded food critic, Carl reevaluates his job at a fancy restaurant in California. He realized that sticking to a strict menu has taken away a lot of joy from the profession he used to love. After he quits his job, Carl heads to Miami, Florida with his family because his ex-wife, Inez, needs him to watch their son, Percy, while she works.
25. Sanjay's Super Team This is an animated short film from Pixar directed and written by Sanjay Patel who based it off his experiences as a child. The story revolves around a young boy, Sanjay, and his father, an Indian-American migrant. Sanjay is watching his favourite superheroes on TV while his father is praying by the shrine in the same room. His father urges him to join in the ritual but Sanjay refuses so he switches off the TV and takes his toy in order to force him into it.
26. The colonial city
27. My Dad
31. Freedom Writers: Bridging Racial Divides Through Writing Freedom Writers (the movie) is based on a true story of a school in Long Beach, California. The main character, Erin Gruwell, is a new teacher at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School and placed with the students who are considered at-risk and unteachable. These students were almost entirely comprised of minorities, with the exception of one student. With such a diverse class and a group of students who had no apparent desire to learn, the film explores the real-world challenges that Gruwell faced trying to get her students to come to class wanting to learn, if they would even want to come to their classes at all. The class divides itself based on race, and fights and arguments breakout regularly. The class later finds common ground on their feelings and discussions around The Holocaust. Her students become inspired to break free from the things that originally divided them, most notably with one character speaking out against someone who she was being forced to lie for during a trial. She tasked her students with writing in a diary and then compiled those journals and writings into a collection of them all in “The Freedom Writers Diary.”
32. Roaring Lion
35. Emmeline the Suffragist
37. Rafael DCB
42. Michelle S
48. A Leader
49. Train of Hope
53. Fox's Creek On a hot summer night a community of animals were chased out of their home by a growing wildfire which started to burn down their forest. Mother Deer grabbed her young ones while the other animals rushed to cross the great river. Everyone showed their human instincts, pushing, kicking, and growling desperately on their way to safety. Mother Deer made it to the other side with Fawn but Mother Rabbit forgot one of her many young ones so she asked her for he
56. The Myth of the Mansfield Hanging Tree
57. Simba and the Maasai Warriors
65. The doctors' team of the Aegean sea
66. Nick C
74. We are all Martín Fierro
77. Stephanie Q
85. The Help
90. Ghada G.
93. Nina N.
95. Sandokan: A Post-Colonial Coldwar Hero The plot of the novel revolves around the adventures of Sandokan - a Bornean man who lost his status, home and family to British colonialists. Embittered by his experience, Sandokan sets up camp at the island of Mompracem. From there he leads a gang of pirates under the flag of the Tiger. Together they destabilize the colonialists’ authority through robbery and violence. Steeped in the colonial period in which it was written, Salgari’s novel pitted indigenous populations against the colonial powers in ways that highlighted the evils of imperialism and celebrated resistance. As Maria Bianca Gerlich (1998, 34) observes, “Sandokan, Mompracem, and the flag of the tiger are allegories in the fight for freedom.”
98. Equilibrium Equilibrium is set in 2072 in Libria, a city state established by the survivors of World War III. “Equilibrium” is an action/thriller movie following John Preston (Bale), an enforcement officer in a futuristic world where a regime has decided to eliminate war by suppressing emotions using a certain type of drug. Books, art and music are strictly forbidden and "feeling" is a crime punishable by death.
107. How I "Eat, Pray, and Love"
113. Nour H
121. Dana G.
122. Nora S
125. Out of Balance
128. The Outlet It is the civil war in Venezuela. Xena and her little brother, Gabriel, live in the city where Gabriel practices his art. Xena, wants to see her brothers art and asks him to go to his studio and bring it back. Just as he reaches the car, a bomb hits the car, killing Gabriel. Xena, being extremely close to her brother, blames herself for sending him to get his art. She later finds out that the bomb was planted by the Latin Kings gang. Out of revenge, she then joins the rival gang with her friend, Shepard. In an act of revenge, her gang plants a bomb. She later learns, that the bomb she planted blew up Shepard's parents house. Feeling guilty, and knowing that Gabriel would be disappointed in these actions, she decided to make a change. In honor of Gabriel, she picks up his art, and paints the entire country of Venezuela with beautiful street art. Through this art she finds peace. The art was so beautiful and happy, that it ended the civil war, and transformed into a happy, peaceful place to live.
130. Tiajna A
133. An American Chef in the Aegean: Teaching solidarity through food
136. A Tale of Traveler's Past A 28-30 year-old man boards a train and sits in an empty compartment. He is a weary traveller who has spent countless days trying to find transportation to reach his destination. While en route, he falls asleep and is visited from travelers from past and present journeys of who had boarded this particular train. The first visitor is Alexander Hamilton; a migrant from the Caribbean who traveled to the United States in the 1800's. He recounts his experience of traveling to a new country and achieving his dream of creating something that would outlive him. The second visitors are Art and Vladek Spiegelman; a father and son who share their story of how they migrated to a new country after the Holocaust events of World War II and their struggles of adapting into the culture of a new nation. The last visitor is a woman who comes from the Middle East who arrived in Vienna a year ago. She tells her story about the journey she experienced to reach her new home as well as the issues she's experiences now as an outcast from a land that she's still not fully settled into yet.
138. Em/Power Love As Liz finishes her spiritual trip around the world she heads to Brazil for her final stop. She stops into a local bar where this man Sebastiao spills a glass of wine on her. From there the love story began and the couple traveled around Brazil to take photos of social injustice. One night they were out in the middle of a field where they were taking photos of an approaching comet and Sebastiao noticed something strange in the image. They went to the comet collision and found an luminescent girl standing there. She introduces herself as Em, an inter-terrestrial who warns them about the consequences of gender inequality. She says there is an outer universal counsel that judges planets according to social understandings. Em tells them that she has magic powers to empower women and helps them reach self-discover. Liz and Sebastiao take on the mission to travel around the world with Em to show the strong women all over the world. Together they take photos of social injustices while illustrating stories of women struggling to find themselves within their societies. After taking the photos with Em using her magic power given by the moon they feel they can become their own hero. Em takes the photos back to the counsel to prove that Earth is becoming a more equal society. But Liz and Sebastiao’s work of empowering women and showing social injustices will still continue.
139. Julia B. I am a third year student at the University of Maryland in the U.S. studying Journalism with a minor in French. Writing is a passion of mine, and journalism is one of the many real world applications of writing. I hope to be able to use writing to make an impact on the world through the news and help others get the information that they need in order to be informed citizens. In my free time I like to do triathlons and write poetry.
Contents of this tag:
2. Maus: A Survivor's Tale
6. How the tortoise got cracks in his shell
9. My Dad
10. Sanjay's Super Team This is an animated short film from Pixar directed and written by Sanjay Patel who based it off his experiences as a child. The story revolves around a young boy, Sanjay, and his father, an Indian-American migrant. Sanjay is watching his favourite superheroes on TV while his father is praying by the shrine in the same room. His father urges him to join in the ritual but Sanjay refuses so he switches off the TV and takes his toy in order to force him into it.
11. Freedom Writers: Bridging Racial Divides Through Writing Freedom Writers (the movie) is based on a true story of a school in Long Beach, California. The main character, Erin Gruwell, is a new teacher at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School and placed with the students who are considered at-risk and unteachable. These students were almost entirely comprised of minorities, with the exception of one student. With such a diverse class and a group of students who had no apparent desire to learn, the film explores the real-world challenges that Gruwell faced trying to get her students to come to class wanting to learn, if they would even want to come to their classes at all. The class divides itself based on race, and fights and arguments breakout regularly. The class later finds common ground on their feelings and discussions around The Holocaust. Her students become inspired to break free from the things that originally divided them, most notably with one character speaking out against someone who she was being forced to lie for during a trial. She tasked her students with writing in a diary and then compiled those journals and writings into a collection of them all in “The Freedom Writers Diary.”
17. A Leader
23. Train of Hope
25. The Light at the end of a Dark Tunnel
27. Emmeline the Suffragist
28. The Diary of Anne Frank
30. We are all Martín Fierro
39. The Help
42. How I "Eat, Pray, and Love"
43. The doctors' team of the Aegean sea
Contents of this tag:
Contents of this tag: