Wind in the Willows

From Gardner McFall's Introduction toThe Wind in the Willows What began as a bedtime story for Grahame's son soon became a story for the child in himself and a compensatory site of reclaimed joy. Grahame turned from his life's disappointmentshis mother's death, his abandonment by his father, his uncle's refusal to send him to Oxford, his passionless marriageand created an alternate reality, an animal fantasy set in a pastoral landscape, reminiscent of the one he'd loved as a child and marked by the strong bonds of male companionship. In this world, the animal characters who behave like people are sensitive to nature and each other; though danger lurks both in the Wild Wood and the Wide World, it is mastered or avoided altogether; and, significantly, death never intrudes. For all the personal reasons Grahame had for creatingThe Wind in the Willows, the historical moment also exerted its force on him. A "mid-Victorian" (Green, p. 2), Grahame increasingly felt, as did many writers and artists of the day, the impact of the industrial revolution, with its loss of an agrarian economy and the ascendancy of a middle class dedicated to accumulating wealth. He felt that materialism and the accelerated pace of life had robbed man of a soul, had domesticated life's miracles, and forced man to neglect the animal side of his nature, all themes he had previously explored in his essays. Ambivalent about social change, a reflection of which is perhaps found in Grahame's pitting the Wild-wooders against the River-bankers, Grahame took refuge in his writing. Like other authors of the "golden age of children's literature," roughly the years from 1860 to 1914, he outwardly conformed to society's standards. Though these were standards he criticized openly inPagan Papersand indirectly inThe Golden AgeandDream Days,inThe Wind in the Willowshe subsumed his critique in a fantasy whose rejection of everyday reality in favor of an alternate one can be read as a fundamental rebellion against the norms. Like Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, and J. M. Barrie, Grahame found solace in the world of fantasy he created out of recollected childhood memories, many of which were bound up with nature. Indeed he preferred the world of nature to that of people. Like Walt Whitman, who praised the virtues of animals inLeaves of Grass, a work Grahame knew and admired, he favored animals for what they could teach people about how to live in the world. InThe Wind in the Willows, the animal characters appear inherently superior to the human ones. They have more discriminating senses, as Mole shows in his keen ability to recognize his home through his sense of smell. Badger's home, built upon the remnants of a human dwelling, implies the triumph of the animal kingdom over human civilization; it attests to the futility of man's endeavors. As he tells Mole, "They were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last, for they thought their city would last for ever. . . . People comethey stay for a while, they flourish, they buildand they go. It is their way. But we remain." Grahame's view of human folly, expressed through Badger's conversation with Mole, is reminiscent of the Romantic poet Shelley's in his famous sonnet "Ozymandias," which Grahame would have known, Explaining his preference for animals, Grahame once said, "As for animals, I wrote about the most familiar and domestic inThe Wind in the Willowsbecause I felt a duty to them as a friend. Every animal, by instinct, lives according to its nature. Thereby he lives wisely, and betteGrahame, Kenneth is the author of 'Wind in the Willows ' with ISBN 9781593082659 and ISBN 1593082657.