The Rabbits written by John Marsden and Shaun Tan is an allegorical fable about colonisation told from the perspective of the natives, represented as billibies. The Rabbits are a metaphor for the white settlers of Australia and the story is about their negative effect on the world of the Aboriginal people.
The use of imagery is widely used through the text. It creates a sense of feeling as, if imagined you would be able to feel part of the story. Emotive Language was used as well to portray a feeling to the reader for example, “Who will save us from the Rabbits?”
This picture book shows a lot of symbols which enhances more of an illustration for example the rabbits themselves are a symbol as they represent the British who colonised and also the billibies represent the aborigines.
The illustration of this visual text done by Shaun Tan is beautiful to look at because of the superb artistic style which are bold and creative. They range from light and airy peaceful landscapes, to dramatic collages. The rabbits are drawn stylish experts who change the environment. As the story goes on, the bright colours drain from it, leaving blackness. The setting, a rural area or the outback are shown in relation to what the rabbits did to the calm environment, changing it into the land they want it to be which was against everything the aborigines believed about land in their culture.
Personification is where the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas is used to convey the message or moral of the text in a unique way. The quote, “no mountain could stop them; no desert; no river” is a use of personification in the text suggesting the depth of the story. Sarcasm is not widely used throughout the text but can help give a better meaning to the story. The Gaze of the characters are not demand as they are not facing the reader but are looking somewhere else which is offer.
Themes expressed through this visual text are strong and powerful. For