A dip into the fantastic food within the world of Beatrix Potter stories.
Sunday 19 March 2017
5. The Tale of Mr Tod. Predator vs Prey
(1) Tommy Brook
Another of Beatrix Potter's stories is the story of Mr Tod. This tale is about a fox named Mr Tod and a badger named Tommy Brook, Tommy Brook steals Benjamin bunnies children and then breaks into Mr Tod's house intending to eat the children later in the day. Complications arise and the story unfolds from there. It is A very dark tale if looked at in a certain light. From a previous post I wanted to carry on the trend of animals being food and how Beatrix Potter uses this to her advantage. The Tale of Mr Tod is one of the darkest stories that ever came from Beatrix Potter and in some cases parents wanted it removed from editions of the text. This is to do with the dark undertone of the narrative. Nearly all of the images are dark and bold showing both the badger and the fox. What is again unusual about this text is how civilised Potter has made the characters. From reassuring her readers 'Now Tommy Brock did occasionally eat rabbit pie; but it was only very little young ones occasionally when other food was really scarce' (Potter 208) this language is used to make the reader sympathise with Tommy Brook. But children will be looking at the characters as people and not animals. By saying this about Tommy Brook it makes him seem more of a gentleman.
(2) Potter 227 quote
Further, into the text there is civilised human actions an example is the description of how the dinner table in Mr Tod's home is set out (figure 2) This meal is for Tommy Brook and the thing that is most disturbing about it is the knowledge that the baby rabbits are inside the oven waiting to be cooked. The scene is set out to be very human and civilised but behind the facade, there is a darkness. This is something Beatrix Potter does very well. Behind the innocence there is darkness, it makes the reader more aware of predator vs prey.
(3) Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger
The Predator vs prey theme is a moral issue within these texts, this tale is more aware of it than many others. But Beatrix Potter isn't the only children's writer to put this as a theme within their texts. Within Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger, the whole text is focused on the rules of being a predator vs being prey. The magic is that the humans have duck features and have to act like ducks when they have killed and hunted ducks previously in the story. This is also swapped when the ducks start to have human characteristics and start hunting the people. The reader gets pulled into a world in which they realise that it is not okay to assume you are the predator. This is what Beatrix Potter plays on within her texts, by making her characters more human there is an instant reaction and care for their well-being.
(4) Potter 237 quote
The Tale of Mr Tod is also interesting because the worry and care for innocence is represented in another way throughout the passage on the left there is the same sense of being civil and human rather than having an animistic side. It shows the direct comparison between something nice and human (the plate) and then the hunting for food like an animal. The Plate in this description adds context and feeling to the character of Mr Tod right before he essentially kills and eats eggs (babies). As readers we don't have the same reaction to this as we would do if they were living creatures, the baby rabbits are a different matter as they are living and breathing. But again the illustrations throughout the book are depicted as very dark scenes. The image of Mr Tod is interesting because even though he is a predator, he is worried about Tommy Brook's teeth. This shows that even a predator is fearful and can become food if the situation arises.
Images and Works Cited
Potter, Beatrix. The Beatrix Potter Collection. Vol. Two. Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 2014. Print.
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