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"Journey" in the Wind in the Willows

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Submitted By DavidClassic
Words 380
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Journeys are change from the status quo, a path to something different. Whether it is a journey you take or the journey that takes you, it will lead to new insights, self reflection and a look back to where you’ve come from.

In the excerpt of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame we met a reluctant rat, a fascinated mole and an animated toad. These anthropomorphised creatures exhibit very human traits, such as the want for something new, some more than others.

These characteristics and traits that Kenneth Grahame has given the animals invites the reader into an imaginative journey. To suspend their belief, to believe that animals can talk and interact like humans, allowing the reader to connect on an emotional level to the characters.

It is suggested that the characters themselves are embarking on a physical journey. Toad unveils a gipsy caravan, a symbol for the nomadic culture. Grahame describes in vivid detail the contents of the caravan, the “biscuits, potted lobster, sardines – everything you could possibly want”. This creates the image in the mind of the reader of everything that one would need to go on a journey. The toad describes the possibilities that come with the caravan “Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here today, up and off tomorrow!” A journey does not need to specifically be something grand or magnificent but something that is different. Something that changes your view; this cannot happen if they do not the leave the river.

The toad and the rat have two differing views one whether taking a journey is a good thing to do. The rat is reluctant, unwilling to follow the toad on his trip. The rat is perfectly content with staying by the river, happy to continue doing what he has done. The toad however points out to the rat the he can’t spend his whole life in the same place that he “can’t manage without you...” “I want to

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