Watership Down and The Odyssey Homes and Heroes
Both Watership Down and The Odyssey involve heroes and their search for home. ... The story of the journey of man or beast in search of home or returning to an old home is the “stuff” heroes are made of. The idea of home is such a universal concept that has been an intrinsic value for man and beast in true life or fiction through all times, and the heroes of Watership Down and the hero of The Odyssey are in search of this feeling, this idea of home Watership Down is the unforgettable story of a group of rabbits in search of a new warren in which to live. ... The journey of this group of little rabbit heroes including Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry, Dandelion, and Pipkin revolves around the finding of a home for themselves. Another text in which this idea of a hero’s journey, a journey in search of a home, shines through is The Odyssey. ... The Odyssey is an epic poem by the Greek author Homer that follows the journey of Odysseus to return to his home in Ithaca. ... The rabbits travel on until they reach Watership Down. ... Three hundred feet the down rose vertically in a stretch of no more than six hundred-a precipitous wall, from the thin belt of trees at the foot to the ridge where the steep flattened out. ... But down in the grass itself, between the bushes, in that thick forest trodden by the beetle, the spider, and the hunting shrew, the moving light was like a wind that danced among them. ... There is something missing at Watership, and Hazel realizes what it is. ... Since they just left their home warren they have met many obstacles and have had a large number of adventures, but now that they have found a place to settle down, they can think about everything a rabbit needs. ... Hazel and the rabbits now find a way to ensure that Watership Down is the home to rabbits for more than just a single generation. The story of The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the Trojan War, the subject of The Iliad. All of the Greek heroes except Odysseus have returned home. Like the rabbits of Watership Down who are in search of a warren of their own, Odysseus wishes to go home, home to Ithaca, home to Penelope.