Richard Adams uses many examples of imagery and sensory details to further explain the plot, setting, characters and even the mood of the story. By including many examples of imagery in his writing, it allows his readers to create a picture in their mind about what is going on. For example, on page 73, when Hazel’s group first arrived at Cowslip’s warren, the author writes “He was at the end of the largest warren he had ever been in; sandy, warm and dry, with a hard, bare floor. There were several tree roots running across the roof…There was a great number of rabbits in the place.” By adding this detail in his writing, Richard Adams allows me to create an image in my head about the setting. It gives me a clear picture that when Hazel and the others come to Cowslip’s warren their first impressions were that this warren is a pleasant one with huge rabbits that will care for them. This is their perfect image of a new home. Later on however, the rabbits realize that there are many death traps surrounding them when Bigwig almost dies because he got caught in a snare. This proves that sometimes looks can be very deceiving. Also, the author uses many examples of imagery and sensory details to develop a mood in the novel, Watership Down. For example, on page 30, when the rabbits encounter the lendri, the author describes it in a very negative and frightening way. Adams writes, “The eyes were peering at them, full of savage cunning. The head moved slowly, taking in the dusky lengths of the wood ride in both directions, and then fixed them once more with its fierce, terrible stare.” By adding this imagery in his story, the author creates a very frightening mood. He describes the lendri from the rabbits’ point of view which was very intimidating. In conclusion, Richard Adams uses many examples of imagery and sensory details in both positive and negative ways to develop and explain characters, setting, and the mood of this story. These small details are what make the story more enjoyable to read.
Verisimilitude is the appearance of truth, or the believability or realistic quality of a story. In simpler terms it is when you take something that isn’t true and then give it realistic qualities in order to make the story somewhat believable. It is necessary in a fantasy novel, because if you didn’t have any verisimilitude (realistic qualities), then the story could not be believable in any way. Richard Adams uses verisimilitude in Watership Down to make his story realistic. For example, Richard Adams use the book, The Private Life of A Rabbit and takes real facts about rabbit behavior, defense, characteristics, and even their diet and uses them to describe the rabbits in his fantasy novel. For example, in the book, the rabbits live in warrens, and real life European rabbits dig extensive burrow systems called warrens. Also, a part of rabbit behavior is when they are frightened, they make loud screams. The author uses this in his book when the crow came down and frightened Pipkin. On page 42, Adams writes, “Crows aim at the eyes, and Pipkin, sensing this, had buried his head in a clump of rank grass and was trying to burrow further in. It was he who was screaming.” By writing this, the author takes a realistic behavior about real-life rabbits and uses them in his story. Also, apart from rabbit behavior, Richard Adams creates the rabbits so they have myths and legends. Some of their legends are the story of how Frith creates the world. On page 26, the author writes, "Frith made the world. He made all the stars, too and the world is one of those stars. He made them by scattering his droppings over the sky and this is why the grass and the trees grow so thick on the world." This is verisimilitude, because this legend that the rabbits have about Frith creating the world is VERY similar to what many humans believe about the God of the Bible creating the world. As you can see, Richard Adams uses many methods and examples of verisimilitude to make his fantasy novel somewhat realistic and believable.
Feedback:Chloe -Greatexplanation of how Richard Adams uses imagery! You chose 2 great passages to explain! I really like the passage that you chose about the burrow in Cowslip's warren; not many other students chose that passage, and you did a great job of explaining how the mood present in that setting ends up being deceiving to the rabbits.
Very well-developed explanation of Adams' use of verisimilitude! You really organize your writing well, Chloe! Great job! Nice job of referencing The Private Life of the Rabbit, too!
Overall, I think I did well on this test. I think I did the best on my BCRs. This is because I used good examples directly from the texts when supporting my response. I also included page numbers. For BCR number 1 I think I chose good passages from the book to support my answer, because it had many examples of imagery and sensory details which clearly stated the setting and mood. Also, I think I did well on the test, because I spent a long time looking in the book for clear passages from the book that would be best for my response. I understand verisimilitude and how Richard Adams uses it in his novel, and I understand imagery as well .However, it took me a long time to find an example of imagery that clearly supports the mood of this story. In the future, when I am reading, I think I could improve noticing more detail by re-reading parts of the text that I wasn’t sure about or that seemed like an important part in the plot.