Mother Rabbit Essay

776 Words4 Pages
The short story “Mother Rabbit” by Michael Hyde is about a man learning to deal with grief. At first, he struggles to deal with the death of his mother and also finds himself becoming distant from his own family. The narrator is unhappy with the way things ended with his mother, feeling incomplete and full of curiosity ever since. With no one to turn to, he turns to his beloved wood - chopping away his troubles and frustrations. However, throughout the story, the narrator is finally able to overcome grief when he meets a grey angora rabbit, the re-incarnation of his dead mother. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is seen chopping wood by himself. Chopping wood alone symbolised his state of mind. It meant the narrator was depressed and lonely when it came to dealing with grief. Chopping wood tended to be an act of aggression as it used a lot of strength. This was also what the narrator felt, using it as a gateway of releasing all the frustration he had bottled up inside. Since she had passed away, the narrator constantly had 'dreams where she regularly made a guest appearance had filled and interrupted’ his sleep. His usual response was 'to go outside and chop some wood’. To see his mother in his dreams indicated the narrator had unresolved problems that he still needed to work out with his mother and would not be at peace until he did. As he takes a break from chopping wood, he wonders about what happens after death, re-incarnation in particular. He then mentions he has never talked nor discussed about his mother passing away to anyone, surprisingly even his family, doubting it would help solve anything or even overcome his grief. ‘What use was going over and over it never solved anything and hardly ever made you feel better’. The narrator though is proved wrong when he astonishingly meets his mother in her re-incarnated form, a grey angora rabbit.
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