Watership Down Group

Question:

morgan17
morgan17
Student
High School - 10th Grade

What is the importance of the excerpts at the beginning of each chapter of Watership Down?

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Posted by morgan17 on Tuesday August 21, 2007 at 5:52 PM and tagged with excerpts, watership down.

Answers:

  1. ambarh
    ambarh Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The excerpts at the beginning of each chapter serve many purposes. The first is to show that the author, Richard Adams, is a widely educated writer since the epigraphs are taken from major works in classical literature, English poetry and, of course, the Bible. The fact that Adams uses these brief passages to introduce each chapter suggests that elements of his story have been written about since the beginning of time.

    In addition to flexing his intellectual muscle, Adams' primary use of these excerpts is to foreshadow, or hint at, what will happen in the pages to come.

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    Posted by ambarh on Tuesday August 21, 2007 at 6:52 PM