The terrible things
The Terrible Things are one of the main characters in the short story. The description the author offers about them is extremely limited but the impression left is that they can easily scare those with whom they come in contact with. The Terrible Things have a great power over the others and no one dares to step up and argue with them. The Terrible Things are free to do whatever they want and together with their terrible nets they catch the creatures living in the clearing one by one until no one is left. The Terrible Things represent here the Nazi government who for the duration of the Second World War behaved in whichever way they saw fit without being told to stop.
The Little Rabbit
The Little Rabbit is the character who speaks the most in the story. The Little Rabbit is saddened to see how no one in the clearing is willing to step up and stand for the animals taken by the Terrible Things and he continues to ask the Big Rabbit why no one is tries to do something. The Little Rabbit is the only one who escapes the Horrible Things because he manages to hide near a rock when the Horrible Things come for the bunnies. The Little Rabbit could symbolize the people who tried to stand up against the things that happened during the Holocaust and who questioned the reason why the Horrible Things did what they did.
The Big Rabbit
The Big Rabbit is another important character in the story and he is the one who urges the Little Rabbit to not ask questions and to be grateful that he is not the one taken by the Horrible Things. The Big Rabbit is eventually taken by the Terrible Things at the end of the short story.
Feathers
The name Feathers is given to the birds that are first taken by the Terrible Things. The reason why the Terrible Things took the birds was because they had feathers. It is implied that the Feathers did not tried to escape the nets the Terrible Things threw to them and that they were the only creatures that accepted their fate without struggling. After the Feathers were taken away, the rest of the animals tried to lie to themselves that the Feathers deserved their fate.
The squirrels
The squirrels were the second group of animals taken by the Terrible Things. in comparison with the Feathers, they tried to escape their attackers by climbing into the trees but were unable to get away from the nets cast by the Terrible Things.
The fish and the frogs
The fish and the frogs were among the last animals to be taken away by the Terrible Things. Just like the other animals, they were caught with the nets the Terrible Things used on the other animals.
