Wind In The Willows By Kenneth Grahame
Wind in the Willows is an excellent book written by Kenneth Grahame, which explores friendship and morals in a pastoral-industrial world of anthropomorphic animals, which exhibit human-like behavior. Even though it consists of controversial material for a conventional children’s book like crime, it is widely considered a children’s book as the effect of talking animal’s inclines towards friendlier storytelling with sketches of its characters in the book. In this essay, using quotes and content found in the book, the key moments of Toad’s journey will be followed and it will be determined whether he has truly changed or not and the reason behind either result will be presented.
Toad is portrayed as the rich occupant and owner of the Toad Hall, who has is able to engage in his impulsive desires like punting, house-boating and hot air balloons and is …show more content…
portrayed as a very reckless, almost to a sociopathic degree, sensation seeking being. Toad is creative and resourceful but is also narcissistic, remorseless and shows an utter lack of common sense. However, Toad is lovable and has a kind heart, which explains why he has faithful and loyal friends like (Badger, Rat and Mole) who genuinely care about his wellbeing and persevere with him despite his impulsive lifestyle even going as far to sacrifice their holidays to help their careless friend. Toad may be likened to a spoilt brat with a lot of money as we are told that Toad’s vast fortune was inherited from his father while Badger and company were restraining Toad out of concern he may do something rash.(Grahame, 108)
Toad, being the cunning person he is, tricks Rat (the one who was guarding him at the time), escapes the place and ends up stealing the car of a couple who entered the restaurant Toad was dining in. He gets extremely excited and loses his voice of reason “ as if in a dream, all sense of right and wrong, all fear of obvious consequences, seemed temporarily suspended”. (Grahame 121) .He winds up getting caught by the police and is sentenced to twenty long years in prison. During his time in prison, Toad meets the only confirmed human character in the book, the warden’s daughter.(Grahame 143) Despite being shown sympathy, Toad was only concerned about getting out of prison, which he does disguised as a washerwoman.
In Toads defense, it can also be argued that Toad is unable to change as in the course of the book as he is very lucky. In addition to being born with a silver spoon, people around him are very nice and helpful to him. Despite ignoring and not reciprocating these acts of kindness, he just seems to get away with it and this makes it something he has started taking for granted. As this is a tale for children, it is understandable that uncomfortable truths of the real world associated with such a lifestyle most commonly: lies, deceit and murder has been completely omitted from this story. In real life, it is highly unlikely that people will stop everything they are doing to help someone dealing with their problems like in this story although most people generally have a good heart and do help those in distress.
As the story takes place in 19th century England, Toad can also be interpreted as a person with wealth, status, privilege and responsibility but one who is arrogant – rich people have been perceived as being snobby and arrogant since a very long time in popular culture. Grahame seems to use Toad and his habits as a metaphor to express concerns about the natural world and industrialization becoming a popular concept, where he shows antagonism towards the latter. When one looks at the initial portrayal of Mole and Rat in their natural world, everything appears good and peaceful as we see a blossoming friendship and a promising future for them, but then once Toad is introduced, we see his impulsive lifestyle about his love of motor cars, which was something only the rich could possible afford back then. The author shows us that a rich person in a car leads to catastrophic things and an incident where Toad manages to evade the pursuit by the police despite his washerwoman farce being exposed to an engine driver, he actually helps him escape. As I stated earlier, this may also be due to the fact that Grahame portrays nearly everyone but Toad to be nice and moral or even that Toad is just that lucky or it just may have to do with his distaste of the new trend we would know as industrialization.
Toad eventually cons a washerwoman and sells her horse to a gypsy and then comes across a car, exhausted and collapses, still disguised.
Up to this point, Toad shows absolutely no remorse for his actions and the only thing he acknowledges is that he had “been a fool, strutting about the country, singing conceited songs, hailing people in broad daylight instead of hiding in nightfall and quietly reaching home” (Grahame 206). Following this, two kind gentlemen in a motorcar see Toad lying in the street and decide to help him, albeit perceiving a washerwoman. Toad, upon realizing that he isn’t recognized, tricks them into letting him get to the driver’s seat and in a déjà vu, cons the same drivers (whose car he stole before he was sentenced to twenty years in prison) and tells them “ I am the Toad, the motor-car snatcher, the prison breaker, the Toad who always escapes!” (Grahame 209). It seems that Toad understands the world isn’t a fair place and his mischievousness against society reflects this, showing some degree of intelligence and street smarts by Toad, as he manages to survive despite being along and
penniless.
However, he isn’t above reciprocating his true friends and this is shown in the end after clearing the Toad Hall of the weasels where he tells Mole “Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all your pains and trouble to-night, and especially for your cleverness this morning!”(Grahame 246) and the next morning, reflects on compensating for the collateral damage he caused. Badger asks Toad to write invitation letters to invite those he has wronged to the Toad Hall, where they would discuss prison systems, water-ways and a typical English squire among other social things. It appears quite clear that Toad didn’t want to actually write the letters but clearly showed his willingness to make sacrifices for his friends. However, the idea of songs and speeches made it clear that Toad was still conceited as stated after Rat and Badger caught his act and Toad “saw that he was trapped. They understood him; they saw through him, they ahead got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered” (Grahame 252-253). Soon after, evidenced by him appearing more humble and modest, Toad showed us that he has truly changed as we see the aftermath where Toad indeed compensates everyone in his journey from gifting “ a handsome gold chain and locket set with pearls with a modest letter to the Gaoler’s daughter” to “discreetly making the barge-woman’s horse’s value compensated” (Grahame 258).
It appears that Toad had only truly shown any change after Badger and Rat confronted him about his ‘speeches’ and ‘songs’ and the fact that only under his friends’ supervision, he compromises. He still doesn’t appear to show any guilt for his actions but does compromise himself as he truly understands his friends and changes his attitude in the process. The best part about this is that he stays true to his word and his actions reflect the change we were expecting. While he doesn’t appear to change his way of thinking, his friends makes him conscious and perceptive about his actions and even if he suppressed his impulsive desires, he shows no intention of acting upon it as long as the four friends are together (Grahame 259).
References:
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Toad is portrayed as the rich occupant and owner of the Toad Hall, who has is able to engage in his impulsive desires like punting, house-boating and hot air balloons and is …show more content…
portrayed as a very reckless, almost to a sociopathic degree, sensation seeking being. Toad is creative and resourceful but is also narcissistic, remorseless and shows an utter lack of common sense. However, Toad is lovable and has a kind heart, which explains why he has faithful and loyal friends like (Badger, Rat and Mole) who genuinely care about his wellbeing and persevere with him despite his impulsive lifestyle even going as far to sacrifice their holidays to help their careless friend. Toad may be likened to a spoilt brat with a lot of money as we are told that Toad’s vast fortune was inherited from his father while Badger and company were restraining Toad out of concern he may do something rash.(Grahame, 108)
Toad, being the cunning person he is, tricks Rat (the one who was guarding him at the time), escapes the place and ends up stealing the car of a couple who entered the restaurant Toad was dining in. He gets extremely excited and loses his voice of reason “ as if in a dream, all sense of right and wrong, all fear of obvious consequences, seemed temporarily suspended”. (Grahame 121) .He winds up getting caught by the police and is sentenced to twenty long years in prison. During his time in prison, Toad meets the only confirmed human character in the book, the warden’s daughter.(Grahame 143) Despite being shown sympathy, Toad was only concerned about getting out of prison, which he does disguised as a washerwoman.
In Toads defense, it can also be argued that Toad is unable to change as in the course of the book as he is very lucky. In addition to being born with a silver spoon, people around him are very nice and helpful to him. Despite ignoring and not reciprocating these acts of kindness, he just seems to get away with it and this makes it something he has started taking for granted. As this is a tale for children, it is understandable that uncomfortable truths of the real world associated with such a lifestyle most commonly: lies, deceit and murder has been completely omitted from this story. In real life, it is highly unlikely that people will stop everything they are doing to help someone dealing with their problems like in this story although most people generally have a good heart and do help those in distress.
As the story takes place in 19th century England, Toad can also be interpreted as a person with wealth, status, privilege and responsibility but one who is arrogant – rich people have been perceived as being snobby and arrogant since a very long time in popular culture. Grahame seems to use Toad and his habits as a metaphor to express concerns about the natural world and industrialization becoming a popular concept, where he shows antagonism towards the latter. When one looks at the initial portrayal of Mole and Rat in their natural world, everything appears good and peaceful as we see a blossoming friendship and a promising future for them, but then once Toad is introduced, we see his impulsive lifestyle about his love of motor cars, which was something only the rich could possible afford back then. The author shows us that a rich person in a car leads to catastrophic things and an incident where Toad manages to evade the pursuit by the police despite his washerwoman farce being exposed to an engine driver, he actually helps him escape. As I stated earlier, this may also be due to the fact that Grahame portrays nearly everyone but Toad to be nice and moral or even that Toad is just that lucky or it just may have to do with his distaste of the new trend we would know as industrialization.
Toad eventually cons a washerwoman and sells her horse to a gypsy and then comes across a car, exhausted and collapses, still disguised.
Up to this point, Toad shows absolutely no remorse for his actions and the only thing he acknowledges is that he had “been a fool, strutting about the country, singing conceited songs, hailing people in broad daylight instead of hiding in nightfall and quietly reaching home” (Grahame 206). Following this, two kind gentlemen in a motorcar see Toad lying in the street and decide to help him, albeit perceiving a washerwoman. Toad, upon realizing that he isn’t recognized, tricks them into letting him get to the driver’s seat and in a déjà vu, cons the same drivers (whose car he stole before he was sentenced to twenty years in prison) and tells them “ I am the Toad, the motor-car snatcher, the prison breaker, the Toad who always escapes!” (Grahame 209). It seems that Toad understands the world isn’t a fair place and his mischievousness against society reflects this, showing some degree of intelligence and street smarts by Toad, as he manages to survive despite being along and
penniless.
However, he isn’t above reciprocating his true friends and this is shown in the end after clearing the Toad Hall of the weasels where he tells Mole “Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all your pains and trouble to-night, and especially for your cleverness this morning!”(Grahame 246) and the next morning, reflects on compensating for the collateral damage he caused. Badger asks Toad to write invitation letters to invite those he has wronged to the Toad Hall, where they would discuss prison systems, water-ways and a typical English squire among other social things. It appears quite clear that Toad didn’t want to actually write the letters but clearly showed his willingness to make sacrifices for his friends. However, the idea of songs and speeches made it clear that Toad was still conceited as stated after Rat and Badger caught his act and Toad “saw that he was trapped. They understood him; they saw through him, they ahead got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered” (Grahame 252-253). Soon after, evidenced by him appearing more humble and modest, Toad showed us that he has truly changed as we see the aftermath where Toad indeed compensates everyone in his journey from gifting “ a handsome gold chain and locket set with pearls with a modest letter to the Gaoler’s daughter” to “discreetly making the barge-woman’s horse’s value compensated” (Grahame 258).
It appears that Toad had only truly shown any change after Badger and Rat confronted him about his ‘speeches’ and ‘songs’ and the fact that only under his friends’ supervision, he compromises. He still doesn’t appear to show any guilt for his actions but does compromise himself as he truly understands his friends and changes his attitude in the process. The best part about this is that he stays true to his word and his actions reflect the change we were expecting. While he doesn’t appear to change his way of thinking, his friends makes him conscious and perceptive about his actions and even if he suppressed his impulsive desires, he shows no intention of acting upon it as long as the four friends are together (Grahame 259).
References:
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame