The Rabbits Analytical Essay

“The Rabbits” is a picture book published in 1999 that is an analogy for the way that British colonisation displaced the First Nation Peoples in Australia. The story depicts how the initial contact between the rabbits, which represent the British, and the numbats, which represent the First Nation Peoples, is initially neutral but quickly devolves into violent conflict and the eradication of the numbat’s culture as an analogy for the British colonisation of Australia. Rabbits significantly modify and degrade the landscape as their population grows, killing vast numbers of numbats. Author, John Marsden, and illustrator, Shaun Tan, selectively use literary and visual features to powerfully convey the events from the First Nation Peoples perspective and the emotional and cultural impact colonisation has on them.

The author uses a variety of descriptive language features to position the audience to understand the contrast between the numbats and the rabbits. Narrating the story from the numbats’ point of view, Marsden has selectively chosen his words in order to convey to the audience the numbat’s victimization by the rabbits' ideas and actions. The author has used language features such as rhetorical questions and personal voices. Rhetorical questions are used frequently in the sparse text. The final three pages of the book ask “Where is the rich, dark earth, brown and moist? Where is the smell of rain dripping from the gumtrees?” “Where are the great billabongs alive with long-legged birds?” and most importantly for the numbats, “Who will save us from the rabbits?”  This line of questioning highlights the text’s overall message of displacement and disempowerment as a result of colonization. Marsden also uses believable and personable language to construct the voice of the numbats throughout the text. This personal voice helps the reader understand the numbats’ point of view and believe all aspects of the story. Throughout the story, the narrator frequently uses the word "our." “They ate our grass. They chopped down our trees and scared our friends away. And stole our children.” The repeated use of the pronoun “our” to refer to the numbats juxtaposed with “they” to refer to the rabbits emphasizes invasion rather than colonization, while also instilling empathy for the indigenous animals and people they represent.

Visual evidence is also used to contrast the rabbits and the numbats. When the numbat and rabbits first meet, the visual appearance of their size is the same, implying that the rabbits are equal to the numbats. The illustrator employs a lot of vibrant visually appealing colors on these pages such as yellow representing energy, orange represents harmony, blue symbolizes peace and spiritually and green suggests vibrant life. Tan suggests the natural world is healthy and full of harmonious plant and animal life through choosing mostly clear positive hues free from pollution. The rabbits increase in size as the story progresses to show that the rabbits and numbats are no longer equal; the rabbits have more power due to their superior numbers and technology. For example, in the page where there is a big rabbit who almost covers half of the page has a compass on his hand symbolizes that the rabbits are slowly dominating the land. In contrast, the numbats slowly becoming smaller and fewer symbolizes their disempowerment and dispossession.

The author and illustrator have skillfully combined their words and images to give First Nation Peoples a voice about their experience of colonization and provide evidence to prove what they are saying. This positions the audience to understand the author's intention of exposing the effects of forced colonization on the numbats. The illustrator creates the contrast using artificial colors.

"The Rabbits" is an analogy for the way that British colonization displaced the First Nation Peoples in Australia. The author uses a variety of descriptive language features to position the audience to understand the contrast between the rabbits and the numbats as well as giving the numbats a voice to convey their experience of colonization. The personal voice of the narrator - helps the reader understand the narrator's point of view and believe their perspective of the story. Use of visual evidence to contrast the ruthless colonizers and the dispossessed First Nation Peoples shows the author's thoughts and statements. The author has also instilled empathy for the animals and people they represent.