Style
MacDonald indicates Potter was particularly sensitive to the openings and closings of her books (she insisted Benjamin Bunny end with the term "rabbit-tobacco", for example), and, in the Flopsy Bunnies, the opening reflects her flair for the elevated diction sometimes encountered in her other books: "It is said the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'." Though the word 'soporific' is not generally encountered in literature for young children, Potter is aware of her audience's limitations and not only defines the word immediately but places it in context: "I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit." She not only defines the word, but introduces rabbits as her subject. The line does not draw attention to itself (though Potter is intruding herself into the narrative), but rather gives the tale a conversational tone or a sense of the story being told aloud by a narrator. Because she immediately brings the audience's attention back to the rabbits, there is no danger she will become a character in the tale, and she is invisible through the remainder of the tale.
Potter uses elevated language again when the rabbit family is described as "improvident and cheerful". Though "improvident" is not immediately defined, the cheerfulness of the family is made evident in the accompanying illustration of the bunnies romping in their burrow while their parents look upon their children with placid contentment. Their improvidence is suggested however in the next two pages of text which describe Benjamin's borrowing of cabbages from his cousin Peter, and the family's occasional resort to Mr. McGregor's rubbish heap in times when Peter cannot spare any cabbages. Mr. McGregor and the rubbish heap are enduring constants in the rabbit universe of the tale, and because they are, the threat of starvation in the line "... there was not always enough to eat" is mitigated. Benjamin and Flopsy may not always be able to provide for their children, but food is available, even if it is not theirs by right. "Improvident" then is defined by course of action, and the lack of an immediate definition nonetheless carries the narrative forward and the reader's curiosity about its meaning is satisfied.
Though Mr. McGregor is a distant, awkward, menacing presence in the pictures, for the first time he is given language which serves to define him. He counts the bunnies in what is presumably a Scottish accent: "six leetle fat rabbits", and argues with his wife about buying "baccy". These and Mrs. McGregor's claim that he has tricked her and "done it a purpose" demonstrate Potter's attention to using dialect and dialogue as a means of defining character – in this instance, of contrasting their manner of speaking with her own in narrating the story.
Read more about this topic: The Tale Of The Flopsy Bunnies
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