Findley uses rabbits to represent Rowena and Rodwell, both characters of pureness and compassion. ... So Rowena's rabbits are killed, "[b]ecause a girl died, and her rabbits survived her" (20). ... Rodwell and Rowena's situations are closely related. ... The connection between humans and animals is expressed by Harris when he speaks of the sea. According to Harris, the sea is the element that bonds humans and animals together. ...

• Word Count: 1801
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

When leaving for war, Robert senses all of his childhood in the mist around him, " the mist was filled with rabbits and Rowena and his father and his mother and the whole of his past life---birth and death and childhood. ... (p.85) Harris tries to persuade Robert that human beings have a close connection with the animals, "Everyone who's born has come from the sea. ... (p.148) After getting raped, Robert burns Rowena's picture. Rowena, representing innocence, has no place into the violent world, which Robert has entered, "This was not an act of anger---but an act of charity."(p.195) ...

• Word Count: 1397
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The Wars: Animal Imagery Sigmund Freud once argued that "our species has a volcanic potential to erupt in aggression . . . [and] that we harbour not only positive survival instincts but also a self-destructive 'death instinct', which we usually displace towards others in aggression" (Myers 666). ...

• Word Count: 1412
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School