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Watership Down

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Watership Down
In light of the description of anthropomorphism, I think it is only fitting to use the novels Charlotte's Web and Watership Down to demonstrate them. While both of these novels show animals behaving in different manners, they are both uncharacteristic of normal animal behaviour. Charlotte's Web shows animals behaviour as primarily human while Watership Down demonstrates animals behaving mostly as animals. This said, we see that both these novels show their characters with human traits, however they are all confined to their physical limitations as animals. A perfect example of this is Charlotte, from Charlotte's Web.

However the activities, physical and mental, actions and behaviour demonstrated by the rabbits in Watership Down are typically the things that humans would expect from rabbits. This said, Charlotte's behaviour in Charlotte's Web, is what we might expect to see from a human being. Her spinning of the web with a word or two in it is not common activities for spiders. While examining the animal's actions, partially sheds light on the stories that we are reading. It helps unravel the ideas and advance the plot. It does not however, give us insight into the behaviour, specifically the god-like actions that demonstrate anthropomorphism in both these novels. While all the characters in both these novels are earthly there is usually at least one in each that has some God-like character traits. The anthropomorphism that we see in Charlotte is the prime example being examined from both novels. While Charlotte is Wilbur's savior and protector, she is still only a spider. White does not give her the physical ability to do things that a spider cannot normally do. Therefore, she must save Wilbur in a way that makes it possible for a spider to do. She spins a web that becomes a miracle, which in turn saves Wilbur from his almost uncertain death. The thought of that is nonsensical within itself. How could a spider have the brainpower to devise

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