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A stuffed rabbit (with real yarn whiskers) comes to life in this timeless tale of the transformative power of love. Given as a Christmas present to a young child, the Velveteen Rabbit lives in the nursery with all the other toys, awaiting the day the Child (as he is called) chooses him as a playmate. Over time, the shy Rabbit befriends the ragged Fur Horse, the nursery’s wisest resident, who reveals the goal of all the nursery’s toys: to become “real” through the love of a human.
This is The Filipinos Group’s December group reading on Goodreads, and after seeing that a PDF is available for free on the web, I immediately downloaded a copy. It is a short read, a fast reader can finish it in 10-15 minutes.
First published in 1922, The Velveteen Rabbit has been republished many times since then and several film adaptations have been made. Margery Williams Bianco, the author, lost her father to a sudden death when she was 7 years old and faced this tragedy by transforming the pain and loss into literature.
the velvet rabbit it is short but charming, a timeless classic that tugs at the heart of all readers, young and old. It speaks of the transforming power of love and, as in most children’s stories, of the desire of each toy to become reality.
Here is my favorite part of the book, my favorite lines underlined:
“That is real?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy up the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a handle that sticks out?”
“Real isn’t how you’re made,” Skin Horse said. “It’s something that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“I take it you’re real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he hadn’t said it, because he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled. “The boy’s uncle made me real,” he said. “That was many years ago; but once you are Real you cannot be unreal again. It lasts forever.“
The excerpt above, to me, is the whole point of the story. I must confess that I had a hard time grasping the concept of “coming real”, since the story is told from the point of view of a toy, an inanimate object, which is obviously not me. I wonder how a child reading the book could understand it more than I do, since to me being real is a philosophical concept, beyond the reach of a small child. But who am I to underestimate the wisdom of a child?
Let me equate the concept of “real” to being “meaningful”. This is the closest synonym to the word that I could think of in this story. The toy rabbit felt and became real because it served its purpose. As a toy, it has brought joy and comfort to its owner, which, to me, is its main purpose. If you want to get more out of life, or in the case of a toy rabbit, be alive and real, you must learn to live for and with others. Life is not meant to be spent alone. It must be lived not only for oneself, but more particularly for others. Being able to give and share one’s life with others. Because it is by sharing and giving that man feels an unparalleled joy. In fact, whoever feels significant, important, needed, feels real because he has found meaning and purpose in living.