Questions from May Bookclub

I had such a blast at our last bookclub meeting, everyone. There was so much that we got to discuss and talk about, and it was really refreshing to hear everyone's opinions about the reading. Since we didn't get to all of our questions, I am posting them all here so that we can talk about them together on the comments. If you have any other questions or ideas that are unrelated to these, you can simply make another post with them on the blogger page. Have fun!

1. In chapter 9, Adams says “He [Hazel] would go himself [into the bean field] and bring back some news before they even knew that he had gone. That would give Bigwig something to bite on.” Do you think that Hazel is trying to impress Bigwig here? Or is he jealous of him? Why do you think his reaction is so bitter?

2. Pg. 41 “Silver was almost at the crest when suddenly, from halfway up, there came a high screaming- the sound of a rabbit makes, not to call for help or to frighten an enemy, but simply out of terror.” Fear is obviously overcoming Fiver’s senses right here. Instead of using his brains, he is completely subjected to his fear. Do you think that this reflects our own behavior sometimes?

3. Maybe you have also noticed that rabbits are the only animals that can talk in this story. Elil, and insects cannot. Why do you think this is? Do you think Adams is trying to highlight the story of the rabbits, so he leaves out all other dialogue? Or maybe the other animals have their own language? What do you think?

4. Turn to chapter 10. Read the first paragraph. I’ve always been interested in how people in fictional stories can tell time on night watches. This explains a lot. Do you think that our own inability to tell time very accurately comes from a loss of connection with nature?

5. Adams says “The light was thicker, the breeze had dropped and the beans were still.” To me, this sounds reminiscent of a hot summer afternoon. What do you think? How are his words painting a picture?

6. Adams says “In an instant the rabbits were running in all directions through the bean rows, each one tearing by instinct toward holes that were not there.” Their response to the shot is clearly preprogrammed and not dependent on the actual situation. Do you think that we ever react out of instinct to a situation? Think, respond rather than react.

7. Of the roads, Hazel and Bigwig say “But that’s not natural… I don’t think they’re alive at all… Now that I’ve learned about it, I want to get away from it as soon as I can.” Why do you think that Hazel has such a strong dislike of the road? Wendell Berry says: ““The difference between a path and a road is not only the obvious one. A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place. It is a sort of ritual of familiarity. As a form, it is a form of contact with a known landscape. It is not destructive. It is the perfect adaptation, through experience and familiarity, of movement to place; it obeys the natural contours; such obstacles as it meets it goes around. A road, on the other hand, even the most primitive road, embodies a resistance against the landscape. Its reason is not simply the necessity for movement, but haste. Its wish is to avoid contact with the landscape; it seeks so far as possible to go over the country, rather than through it; its aspiration, as we see clearly in the example of our modern freeways, is to be a bridge; its tendency is to translate place into space in order to traverse it with the least effort. It is destructive, seeking to remove or destroy all obstacles in its way. The primitive road advanced by the destruction of the forest; modern roads advance by the destruction of topography.” What do you think about this?

8. When Hawkbit and Speedwell are trying to convince Hazel to turn back, Hazel thinks, at first, because of the expression on his face that “he had sickness or poison in him”. Do you think Adams is trying to say that traitors who spread words of dissension are like sick or poisoned men?

9. Fiver says: “We’re in for some mysterious trouble,” whispered Fiver, “and it’s not elil. It feels more like- like mist. Like being deceived and losing our way.” Do you think that Fiver is, in a way, prophesying the danger to come? Why do you think that being deceived and losing your way could be worse than meeting an elil? Fiver refers to the mist again on pg. 105

10. Flip to chapter 11 (pg. 55). In their travel through the wood, Hazel is leading his company, even though he knows no more than them about where they are going. Without even trying, the rabbits trip each other up and scare each other. They are the blind leading the blind. Do you think this applies to our lives as Christians? How?

11. Adams says “Pipkin never left him; and his need for encouragement became at last Hazel’s only support against his own weariness.” Do you think that sometimes we need to help someone else in order to help ourselves? Why do you think Hazel gains so much support from helping Pipkin?”

12. Adams says “’Why do the men come, do you suppose?’ asked Fiver. ‘Who knows why men do anything? They may drive cows or sheep in the fields or cut wood in the copses. What does it matter?” What does it matter? Are we contributing anything to the land or are we draining it for our own purposes? Are our motives and actions, in the long run, even important in the history of this world?

13. Adams says, of the rabbits ‘scrapes’: “There is nothing like bad weather to reveal the shortcomings of a dwelling, particularly if it is too small.” Do you think that is similar to the way that they say “the best judge of a person’s character is how he acts under stress?” The rabbits weak work effort is clearly paying off, and not to their benefit. Do you think it is important for men to learn how to clean a house, cook meals, do laundry, etc. even though it is traditionally the woman’s job? How does that parallel with this passage?

14. Adams says multiple times that the ‘new warren’ is clearly foreboding. Something seems ‘not right’ about it. ‘Mysterious’, ‘strange’, dangerous. Why do you think this is? Is it because the other rabbits don’t like questions? Is it because it is just a new place? Why don’t the rabbits pick up on these negative clues earlier and respond to them?

15. What do you think about the mosaic, Cowslip’s laughing, unnatural smile, and other ‘human-like’ things that the new rabbits have about them? Do you think that they are advancements in the rabbit community, or do you think that they have lost part of who they are in ‘communing with the enemy?”

16. On pg. 91, Adams says that Fiver “was bullied rather than persuaded into going down with them into the great burrow.” He was clearly in a situation that was dangerous (night rain, elil, etc.) When do you think it is appropriate to use force to help someone else? When is it not so?

17. In the story of the King’s Lettuces, Prince Rainbow says that he will only let the rabbits out of the marshes if they promise to be honest. However, El-ahrairah says that that he cannot do that because he would be ashamed to tell his people to stop living on their wits. Do you think that being honest, yet cunning, is totally impossible? Or is ‘using their wits’ too close to being deceitful?

18. Hazel says “Our stories haven’t changed in generations, you know. After all, we haven’t changed ourselves. Our lives have been the same as our father’s and their fathers before them.” Do you think that stories are more special when they are handed down from generation to generation? Or do you think that the best stories are new ones that have never been told before?