Bigwig's Bravery in Watership Down by Richard Adams

In life there will are many challenges that people will be confronted with. Within those challenges there will be many people that will back down to the challenge and the few that will rise up not only facing the challenge, but defeating the task at hand. In the novel of Watership Down by Richard Adams that one person or rabbit in this case is Bigwig. Bigwig is a rabbit that stands out in the novel not only because of his size, but for his courageous bravery/generosity. He is a part of Hazel's group of rabbits and though he does not have the brains that some others do he is one of the alphas of the pack.

Within the story of Watership Down there are numerous wars being fought between different rabbit tribes. Within Hazel's tribe Bigwig is their special warrior that is a force that cannot be stopped. Hazel tries to avoid war at all costs with other tribes, but in the end that doesn't always work. As it says in the story if not for Bigwig, Hazel and his tribe would have been taken over and destroyed. Though Bigwig has the courage and strength to go up against anyone who challenges his tribe he also has the knowledge to listen to Fiver to retreat when necessary as in the novel he says, 'My Chief Rabbit has told me to stay and defend this run, and until he says otherwise, I shall stay here.' This quote shows Bigwig being able to retreat and be smart about certain battles. The only thing that gets in Bigwig's way is his own heart and generosity.

Within this giant monster there is obvious Achilles heel, his heart. Within all the battles in war Bigwig does things that are not necessary or safe for him to do, but does them out of generosity/sorrow. While Bigwig is already being looked at as a suspicious person by Woundwort he is able to get into the Efrafa and free a good amount of does. Bigwig could have easily escaped this warren with no questions at all, but in the end the kindness in his heart takes over almost getting him killed having to convince Woundwort that he is still loyal to the warren. Bigwig is within the Efrafa warren for a good portion of the novel risking his life and it did not end with him releasing numerous does. He meets Blackavar and hears his story with how long he has been being held in the Efrafa warren along with how he has been treated. With Bigwig hearing how harshly Blackavar has been treated he instantly knows that he cannot leave this warren without Blackavar even though he is already under close watch by Woundwort. This is just an example of another unnecessary task that Bigwig does out of the soft spot in his big heart.

In the end Bigwig has impacted and saved many lives as he goes up against the most power of them all in Woundwort. Though Bigwig does not have the size or smarts to defeat Woundwort, he has the heart. The battle is for all of the warren and Bigwig fights a way to persevere. In the end Hazel's tribe relies on Bigwig for the battling between different warrens and for their own lives, while other rabbits fit to different pieces of the puzzle. Overall without the brains of Fiver and the pure strength of Bigwig the tribe of Hazel would have fallen to pieces.