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The Wind in the Willows
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The Wind in the Willows - Ch 4-6
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The fact that Badger built his home on the ruins of a former human habitation was interesting. Also the comments about the fact that humans have come and gone and the badgers were there all the time.
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First I want to comment on Badger, because I love him, he runs away from crowds, just like me =) Since Mole run away from home I wondered if he didnt miss it, Water Rat is a great company and in V chapters shows to be a true and great friend. Mole was so sad of the smell of home but it was Rat that made that return in a heartwarming experience. I loved the little mouse singing christmas carols.
Finaly, about the Toad, it looks like his car-addiction has made him into a pathological liar and a Houdini. I dont like Toad much, but I confess that when he is condemned (in the drawing he is crying) I felt bad for him. But I guess the author was trying to teach a lesson about adictions and theft, message received
It sounded as if the Badger’s house was built among Roman ruins. I love how the whole animal world goes on in parallel to the human world, with relatively little overlap (though the animals do go to shops to buy provender, and of course Toad is in and out of gaol!).I didn’t remember Badger as a sympathetic character, but clearly he’s the glue who keeps the whole community together.
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The next chapter deals with Mole' s home. In the section where they are walkin through the village and look in the windows really shows how they long for home. Then Mole smells his home and Ratty doesn't hear he wants to stop, so Mole continues on in his sad way until he finally can't stand it any more and breaks into tears is very well written. I feel sorry for Mole and am glad that Rat realizes how thoughtless he has been.
I was laughing out loud when Badger was "busy" in his office and that meant that was sleep. I´m gonna start using the word "busy" instead of sleeping.
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I just finished chapter V with Mole going home. I really felt for Mole's sudden longing, and I loved Grahame's descriptions of an animal's "scent and beyond" of being able to sense things that are so delicate and just under the surface our otherwise five bold senses. We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses, have not even proper terms to express an animal's intercommunications with his surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word 'smell', for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in the nose of the animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling. It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness, making him tingle through and through with its very familiar appeal, even while as yet he could not clearly remember what it was. He stopped dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that had so strongly moved him.
Sorry, that was a longer passage than I had set out to include, but I couldn't decide on just one sentence!
I think that Mole's sudden longing for home (as Frances asked in the opening post) is similar to what we all might feel at some point in our lives after we have "left the nest", so to speak, and have ventured out into the world on our own, either embarking onto college or moving out on our own for the first time with a new job and responsibilities. At some point, we have that longing to "be home", and to remember the familiar, and be surrounded by familiar objects from childhood. And, even though Mole goes back and is comforted, he still has the feeling that his life is not there any longer. He has a new life with new adventures and an entire world to explore, no matter how comforting it might be to go back home. Yet, that home will always be there to go back to when he wants, no matter how short of a time he wants to spend there.
Karel wrote: "I was laughing out loud when Badger was "busy" in his office and that meant that was sleep. I´m gonna start using the word "busy" instead of sleeping."I loved that part too! :)
Everyman was talking about suspending our disbelief. I can accept that Toad inherited his money and estate, but I wonder how Rat got all that money to send the mouse to a store for food ;-) No one works in this world, the main characters never worry about getting married, perennial bachelorhood is acceptable, and the only children are minor characters who go home to their mothers willingly. In other words, a perfect world.I usually have NPR radio set to wake me up each morning, and then I listen for an hour or 2. While today's sad news was on, I turned it off, fed the cats, and crawled back into bed with my TWITW.
I have some wonderful Tasha Tudor images in my edition. I think the one in Badger's house with all the smoked meats hanging from the ceiling is brilliant. I especially like the mouse choir too. (Once you get past the first few rows, some pix are not Tudor:)https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wind+in+the...
Abigail wrote: "It sounded as if the Badger’s house was built among Roman ruins. I love how the whole animal world goes on in parallel to the human world, with relatively little overlap (though the animals do go t..."Why did you feel that it was Roman ruins? Did I miss something?
Badger says, “Well, very long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before ever it had planted itself and grown up to what it now is, there was a city—a city of people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and talked, and slept, and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last, for they thought their city would last forever.”You have to go very far back for a city’s ruins to have sunk under the ground and a forest to have grown over it. Looking at British history, the Middle Ages would be the most recent era for which that level of submersion would be possible. But the description of the people as having been rich traders and building to last didn’t seem to match any of the Anglo-Saxon tribal peoples who settled England in the Middle Ages, so I went back further. The Romans would have fitted the description, and their ruins have mostly sunk underground. Before that, in the Neolithic, there were no big cities; only standing stones would have been enduring monuments. So Romans seemed the most likely candidates for the original builders of the archways and passageways of Badger’s lair.
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I have to admire Toad's ingenuity in escaping his captivity in Toad Hall. His friends meant well in helping him kick his habit of dangerous driving, but did not pick the right method. Not that any other method would have worked. Toad has to learn the hard way. His sentence was interesting: twelve months for theft, three years for furious driving and fifteen years for cheek.
As he was being led into the dungeon, it seemed as if they were going backwards in time, from the age of motorcars to the age of halberds, casquet and corselet of steel, etc. The language also changed--Oddsbodikins!
Linda wrote: "At some point, we have that longing to "be home", and to remember the familiar, and be surrounded by familiar objects from childhood. "It's interesting that, while I love my siblings and always enjoy visiting them, since both my parents have died and we've all split up their belongings, I feel much more "at home" and comfortable when I visit their houses now and see so many things that are so familiar to me. I can only imagine that they have the same feeling coming here, as I got the lion's share of the furniture, as well as the artwork and other decor. Yes, it's all just "stuff" but it's stuff with memories attached. I nearly cried for poor Mole when Rat continued on his way without even stopping. So glad he rectified things and, once in Mole's home, made over it and made Mole feel good about it, humble though it was. Grahame is doing an excellent job of illustrating what it means to be a good and kind friend.
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Great reasoning Abigail-just out of curiosity, did you first just intuit that they were roman ruins and then work out your reasoning, or did you wonder what humans they could be referring to and then think it through? I'm always interested in how people come to certain conclusions (and I think you're right!).
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I like this idea-that perhaps it is almost a nostalgia for a previous life, even if it's just to sample it only briefly. That is sometimes a challenge in life-to have several inviting options of how we want to live, but only being able to pick one (or else never to embrace one of them fully)
Rosemarie wrote: "I really liked Mole's reaction to Badger's house and the grand tour that he got. Mole felt right at home there because it was so peaceful and quiet. Rat and Otter were feeling just a wee bit uncomfortable underground.The fact that Badger built his home on the ruins of a former human habitation was interesting. Also the comments about the fact that humans have come and gone and the badgers were there all the time."
All are points I completely agree with. It was especially interesting that when Mole got back to his home it looked dingy and -- is ungrand a word? -- to him. I had exactly the same experience when I went back to visit the home I grew up in. The vast wooded gully out behind our house where my friends and I used to spend hours exploring, playing non-PC games like cowboys and indians, building tree houses, etc., when I went back to it as an adult was disappointingly small and uninteresting. The old quarry down the slope of which we used to slide for hours was barely eight feet high, not the forever slope I remembered. Our neighbor's springhouse dug into the ground where we used to crouch hidden from the road while we floated woodchip boats under the road on the vast river was no more than a depression no more than a few feet deep and only barely enough water to float those chips.
As Mole is finding, you really can't go home again.
Rosemarie wrote: "Badger seems to be the strong silent type, but an excellent host who welcomes the little hedgehogs as well as the three others. ."Every community back in the old days seems to have had a badger figure, an adult (or couple) who looked after the needs of the community, especially the children, not in any official capacity but just for care of the needs of the community. In my day it was a retired couple, sadly childless but who loved children. As we played around we knew that if anything bad happened when our parents were away, if anybody got hurt (like when Chip fell out of the buttonwood tree and broke his arm) we could run to them and find help and comfort, some fresh baked cookies and warm hugs.
I hadn't expected this book to raise such nostalgia about my childhood, but it is -- the messing about with boats which was the center of our summers in Maine, the exploring of mysterious places, the getting into trouble and needing help to get out of it, all were there in my childhood just as they are here in Grahame Land.
Rochelle wrote: Why did you feel that it was Roman ruins? Did I miss something?"If you did, I missed it too. But I also assumed it was Roman because of the length of time that was required for nature to bury it and the description of the buried city -- the solid vaultings, the masonry everywhere, the pavements, a "powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last...." I don't think any people in Britain after the Romans built that way for nearly a thousand years, certainly not long enough ago for them to have abandoned the city and nature to have reclaimed it.
Rosemarie wrote: "Re: Badger being busy. I noticed that all the other animals respected his habit and did not make fun of him. They had very good manners."It's easy to have good manners when faced with somebody who could make a meal of you in an instant if he chose to!
Hi, Frances, I’ve studied some British history so I think the description (with the part Everyman added in message 22) just conveyed the idea of Roman settlement to me. I only really thought about it when questioned about it, and then I fleshed out my reasons.
Very astute to pick up on the Roman ruins...I'm sure you are exactly right.I found it interesting how Grahame wove the people into the story interacting with the animals. I admit I was a little thrown by Toad being able to pass for the washerwoman. A toad and a person would be of such different sizes. Took a lot of suspension of disbelief on that one. :)
Rosemarie wrote: " His sentence was interesting: twelve months for theft, three years for furious driving and fifteen years for cheek.."I think that would resonate with the children that the book was written for, especially in the time in which it was written. Theft is bad, but most children do it from time to time and get a punishment for it. They see furious driving in others, and can see that it's dangerous. But cheekiness is something they really understand and, at least in 1908, knew was something really bad.
Sara wrote: "I found it interesting how Grahame wove the people into the story interacting with the animals. I admit I was a little t..."I'm having a problem accepting the presence of humans, and it's difficult to explain. I've been sitting here 10 minutes, trying to explain why. Maybe someone can help me out.
Badger and Mole are quite right that there is a special safety underground. Which is why early humans sought refuge in caves, why in tornado country people retreat into underground tornado shelters, why during the bombing of London people retreated into the underground and world leaders have always had deep underground war rooms and safe spaces, and why at the height of the cold war thousands of people built underground bomb shelters. There is safety underground.
Rochelle wrote: "I'm having a problem accepting the presence of humans, and it's difficult to explain. I've been sitting here 10 minutes, trying to explain why. Maybe someone can help me out. ..."Well, this are highly evolved animals, they wear clothes, and apparently can be the size of a person (later chapters).
I´ve been wondering how did mole had a porch underground.
I just saw this as an alternate universe where animals run everything and behave like us, as in the film Zootopia, and humans just seems out-of-place. In most children's books, if the story is about animals, they have human traits, but there are no humans. Now I want to know if in this book they have equal status with the animals, or whether one is dominant.About the porch, I think Badger has a courtyard in front with an entire garden. Interesting that Toad is the only one with a real house that he inherited.
Tudor shows Toad as the same size as the jailer's daughter, which I think is what Karel was referring to. Does anyone else's illustrator do that?http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u...
Bransom shows him in a realistic size:
http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u...
Very weird, because he would need to be the size of a human if he is going to pass for the washerwoman. The humans in the story were the only incongruity that I found it hard to process.
And if he were the size of a regular Toad, couldn't he then just slip through the jail bars?
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Funny, I don't seem to have had the same trouble with the animals being almost human-sized. I hadn't even thought about it. :/I'm just enjoying the story of the friendships, explorations, discoveries, and life on the river and in the woods.
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The wonder of it is that only an adult would have any trouble with it, a kid would not even notice. I loved it and it definitely didn't bother me.
Frances wrote: "I'm with you Catherine-it all just seemed to work for me."Me, too. It's whimsy. Don't take it too seriously.
Sara wrote: "Very weird, because he would need to be the size of a human if he is going to pass for the washerwoman. The humans in the story were the only incongruity that I found it hard to process."So I'm not alone in that. But it doesn't really bother me, except that I was surprised.
Does anyone have the Bransom edition where he's tiny?
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=h...
Catherine wrote: "Funny, I don't seem to have had the same trouble with the animals being almost human-sized. I hadn't even thought about it. :/"I'm not bothered either, but I do find myself wondering all of these sorts of questions.
The real versus the true! The many illogical aspects (the size of Toad, Toad driving a car, etc. etc.) belong to our sense of what’s real, but the personal (or animal?) interactions feel true. I personally find the experience of dwelling in the paradox quite exhilarating. It’s quite a breathtaking juggling act, and Grahame passes it off with élan.
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I like the way friendship and nature are depicted in WITW. It is an excellent read for a hot summer's day.
In Stuart Little, the mother gives birth to a mouse. Oddly, in the film, which was made in a much more enlightened age, they adopt the mouse.
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Sara wrote: "Very weird, because he would need to be the size of a human if he is going to pass for the washerwoman. The humans in the story were the only incongruity that I found it hard to process."Remember suspended disbelief! Is that any harder than believing in flue powder??
Abigail wrote: "The real versus the true! "Nice.
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Rosemarie wrote: "The real versus the true. That makes me think of The Velveteen Rabbit, one of my favourite stories."But the Velveteen Rabbit was, of course, actually real, unlike Rat and Mole and Toad.
Edit: is it clear that by actually real I mean actually alive?
Rat and Mole and Toad are actually alive. So are Badger and Otter, one of my favorite animals in the world. The real world, of course.
And the cute mouse choir.
And the little hedgehog kids.
Did anyone notice that the rabbits are seen as stupid? I had a chuckle when Rat smacked one of them to get a piece of information. Then he smacked him again, "knocking some sense into him," as my father would say.
In this section we have a lot of discussion of home-as refuge and shelter, but also as a fundamental expression of oneself. How do the different homes we have seen so far represent and reflect the individual characters? What did you make of Mole's sudden longing for his home, despite the fact that he did not intend to stay there?
Finally, we meet Toad again-is this the first recorded instance of an "Intervention" by friends? Escape and then imprisonment-do you think Toad will ever reform?
Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on this section!