Shaun Tan The Rabbits Essay

The Rabbits (2000) is a picture book written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan. The book explores a watered-down version of the British colonisation of Australia, adopting rabbits instead of British colonists and numbats instead of Aboriginal Australians. The story resonates with all ages, teaching children to take care of the planet, and delivering an important allegory about taking away people’s home, culture, and history.

The most prominent feature of this image is the large painting in the central foreground of the illustration. This painting depicts the Rabbits’ vision for this land; tall, perfectly positioned buildings bathed in golden light from the setting sun. Though seemingly abstract, the buildings are very similar to …show more content…
Through the use of comparison, between how the Rabbits’ are planning to live versus to the way the numbats are used to living, conveyed by the line “They didn't live in the trees like we did”, we are given a confused attitude from the numbats. This line portrays to us how confused they are about what is happening with how these foreigners are coming here, taking away their land and creating a strange world right before them all the while taking away their homes.

The Rabbits are very different from the Numbats. This is outlined through the use of collective nouns such as, “They made their own houses. We couldn't understand the way they talked.” The use of they (the rabbits) and we (the numbats) creates a line division between the two species. However, the division was because the Rabbits’ believed that they were superior, they made their own houses, they spoke a different language, they didn't live the way the numbats did. Continuously, the division is pointed out. With the use of the words on this page, the page is supposed to demonstrate the division and the inequality between the two species, which goes back to how the English treated the Aboriginals back when they came to

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