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Meghan Marrs

The Velveteen Rabbit

Williams, Margery. The Velveteen Rabbit. Illustrated by Nicholson, William. George H. Doran Company, 1922. 8 pages.

[The Velveteen Rabbit} Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TSnr3Y3s1chJRazFYRls1gMY_RLfARuIKcvbWUCjW6g/edit#slide=id.g1690b2547c_0_30

The Velveteen Rabbit written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson is about the long term ownership of a stuffed rabbit than eventually becomes “real”. The main topic of this story is the love displayed between a young boy and his new toy rabbit. Over the course of the book, we see how the rabbit begins to be a “real” being. Long after the Boy is introduced to the rabbit, he develops a sickness. The rabbit is thrown away for fear of spreading the disease. This is where we see the rabbit come into actual existence. A fairy appears to the rabbit just as it is about the be burned. The fairy tells the rabbit that he was real in the sense that the Boy’s love made the rabbit real to him, but now it was time to become real to the world.

“You were Real to the Boy,” the Fairy said, “because he loved you. Now you shall be Real to every one.”

The illustrations by William Nicholson are kind of on the depressing side. He only uses four colors: red, white, green, and yellow. These colors help add to the sad feel of the book. The rabbit is tossed aside after years of love, replaced, and almost killed. In the end the Boy and the rabbit do not even reunite or reach a satisfying conclusion together.

[The Velveteen Rabbit] Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TSnr3Y3s1chJRazFYRls1gMY_RLfARuIKcvbWUCjW6g/edit#slide=id.g1690b2547c_0_30

The book is overall a good learning tool for young children. It teaches the value of love and friendship. The rabbit feels real only when he is being loved by the boy. This draws parallels to reality through human relationships. Sometimes people are their realist when they are with someone they care about. Another lesson could not to exclude anyone because they are different. When the rabbit is laughed at by the “real” rabbits, they are essentially bullying him. In the end the toy is turned real, and all the rabbits end up in the same place. This is common in real life where people are bullied, but end up worse than the person being bullied. These are valuable life lessons for children.