KidLit Forum

The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble
By James Thurber

This fable is about a pack of wolves who hated the way they were living and that’s why everything what happened to their pack was because of the rabbits. The rabbits wanted to leave, but the other animals advised them not to do so, because probably they will help them when they needed.
One day a terrible flood killed many wolves and they decided to attack the rabbits. They imprisoned them in a dark cage telling them that it’s for their safe. The other animals came to where the rabbits were and asked for a good reason not to attack the wolves. The wolves gave them the reason “ they were trying to escape and, as you know, this is no world for escapists”. These words were used by the other animals to convince the rabbits not to leave when they wanted to leave because of the wolves.
The moral of the fable is “Run, don’t walk, to the nearest desert island”, or in other words “ Don’t let yourself be influenced by the other people”
This story is a little bit ironic because of the characters and also there are many repetitions like “ and it is well known that”. The wolves look for scapegoats and find them in the character of rabbits. The story is a little bit absurd because we know that the rabbit can’t cause earthquakes, flood or anything like these. The animals are presented here in a different way because the wolves have fears and, finally, the other animals are defeated with their own arms, their own words, in fact “ this is no world for escapists.”