Anderson Rearick III’s Reviews > The Wind in the Willows > Status Update

We are the thick of it as Toad, Ratty, Mole and Badger prepare to take back Toad Hall. I cannot but help think of “The Scouring of the Shire" and the reclaiming of one’s home does seem to be part of both the stories.

It s clear why Disney zeroed in on Toad, whose absurd confidence gets him in one mess after another. The names he gives himself remind me of the much more sensible Bilbo. Smaug reminded him who he was talking to and Fate gives Toad a good dunking as well in a rivet!

Interesting that it is the act of writing poetry which eventually exercises the spirit of wandering that the sea faring rat had passed on to Ratty.

Once again the adventures of Toad are interrupted. This time there comes the early stirrings of migrating animals. Again it’s almost mythic but then Ratty meets a sea fairing rat who mesmerizes him with his stories of his journeys.

This is an interesting part of this narrative. Animals and humans live in the same plane. Yet animals exhibit very human abilities like going down the river in boats or driving a motor car (and getting in trouble eith the law). And yet there is also this line of thought that an animal could also be a pet. In fact, Toad himself mentions wistfully cats purring in a domestic bliss but clearly in the role of a pet.

In the midst of Toad’s discomforts, we get the story of a lost child in the woods and the intervention of the divine. I’m not sure what to think of it,

After the amazing narrative of the doomed attempt for intervention over Toad and his incarceration in the local castle the sudden abandonment of Toad to Otter’s troubles is an amazing switch

One other point, I’ve been struck by various Parallels between “The Wind in the Willows” with The Hobbit.” One of them comes to mind now: both love their home but both can leave it in an instant.

Although I remembered reading this book in the past I did not recall the spontaneous leaving of his home done by Mole in the first chapter. I DID recall his neat emotional collapse depicted in this chapter and it confused me. Now I understand it all.

Badger’s home built upon the ruins of people dwellings made me think of country folk in England living on Roman ruins.