Rabbit World - Utopian or Dystopian?

Even though in real life, rabbits appear cute, cuddly & immensely lovable, in fiction, only the "The Little Grey Rabbit", created by Alison Uttley, portrays her as a lovable, caring mother figure, who lives with & takes care of her friends Hare & Squirell. The books are illustrated by Margaret Tempest & beautifully produced.

In the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris, the Brer Rabbit character has almost no redeeming virtues. He is vicious, sadistic & revengeful, going out of his way to cheat, bamboozle & otherwise harm his fellow creatures, mostly his natural predatory enemies, Brer Fox & Brer Wolf. Even Enid Blyton, the famous children's author, wrote many books on Brer Rabbit, one of which was correctly called "Brer Rabbit's a Rascal" which couldn't be more correct!

In Richard Adam's "Watership Down", some rabbit warrens (General Woundwort's) is shown to be organised like a human police state, with plenty of violence & cruelty. Even though the structure is classically inspired by Homer & Virgil, the military background of the author comes to the fore, when he describes the forays, attacks & battles between rival rabbit groups.