Literary Devices

I am reading Watership Down by Richard Adams and I have finished thirty one chapters. In this novel there are two outstanding literary devices. Both symbolism and anthropomorphism are used extensively through out the entirety of the text. The anthropomorphism is the easiest to catch. Each character in the story is an animal and they all speak, think, and act like developed human beings and encounter the same problems and hardships as them as well.

"I have learned that with creatures one loves, suffering is not the only thing for which one may pity them. A rabbit who does not know when a gift has made him safe is poorer than a slug, even though he may think otherwise himself." 

They have religion, government, wars, pretty much anything a human does in life these rabbits end up doing. However, the symbolism isn't hard to make out but the symbols are quite deep and require a lot of thought to recognize. The individual warrens are a good example of how the symbolism is presented. At first the warrens are seen only as communities; these are where the rabbits live and communicate so they are their societies. But in actuality, the warrens are examples of the different forms of government we see in our world. The Warren of the Snares is a slight example of a socialist development. This is because each rabbit is on equal grounds with any other. As well as that they only have as much as everyone else; nobody has more, nobody has less. The Efrafan warren, discovered in the last few chapters and investigated by a few of Hazel's companions, is a complete Totalitarian establishment. The warren is controlled by a rabbit named General Woundwort, who is also a symbol of latent Communism, and all decisions for the warren are made by himself and advised by very few of his close officers. He has complete control over the entire group and even goes so far as marking each rabbit and assigning them jobs, sleeping arrangements, feeding times, areas they are allowed to go to, mating assignments, etc. The General is everything a Totalitarian dictator is described to be. On the other side Hazel's warren is the complete exemplification of a Democratic Republic. The leader is wanted by the group; he is only in power as long as the rest allow it and desire it. All of the decisions of the leader are made with everyone's benefit at the forefront; no one is more important than the rest when something needs to get done.