Hawthorne’s Humor Through Quotes: #1
By: Rae Padilla Francoeur
Who psychoanalyzes a bunny rabbit? Nathaniel Hawthorne did, in July, 1851, while living in Lenox, Mass., with his family and Bunny, their pet rabbit!
One day Hawthorne and his son Julian took Bunny outside for some fresh air and sunshine. Bunny set out “on a nimble little run, for no reason, but just as a dry leaf is blown along by a puff of wind.” He observes that his bunny, named Bunny, is uneasy when out in the open. Bunny seeks shade for safety. Hawthorne surmises: I do not think that these fears are any considerable torment to Bunny; it is his nature to live in the midst of them, and to intermingle them, as a sort of piquant sauce, with every morsel he eats. It is what redeems his life from dullness and stagnation.”
Even Bunny had to get out of his comfort zone if he was to live a more interesting life!