Genre
Children’s story
Setting and Context
The action of the story is set in an unnamed clearing in an non-defined time.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is told from a third person objective point of view.
Tone and Mood
Tragic, regretful
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists of the story are the animals in the clearing and the antagonists are the Terrible Things.
Major Conflict
There is no major conflict since the animals in the clearing did not try to stand up to the Terrible Things.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when the Terrible Things capture the rabbits.
Foreshadowing
The fact that the rabbits will also be taken from the clearing if foreshadowed by Little Rabbit’s comment about the dangers of living in the clearing.
Understatement
When the Big Rabbit tells the Little Rabbit that the clearing is a safe space is an understatement as it is later proven.
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
One of the most important images is that of the Little Rabbit left in the clearing after the other animals were taken away. The image, of the little rabbit, defenseless and without anyone to trust is important because it helps the reader visualize the way many German people felt after the Nazis took the people they considered as being threatening or dangerous.
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
A parallel can be drawn between the nets used to catch the birds and the ghettoes in which the Jews were forced to live in during the Second World War. Both elements have been used to imprison living beings and in both cases everything was done in plain sight.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The term "Feathers’’ is used here in a metonymical sense to make reference to every bird.
Personification
At the beginning of the story, "the cool brown waters of the forest pond.’’
