Part 2: No one forgets 'The Wind in the Willows'

When Toad is tricked into giving up his family home in a moment of temptation, he immediately realizes how he has blindly taken even his friends for granted and ignored the possibility of enemies. In spite of his luxurious, unearned life and how quickly his riches turn into rags, Toad has been naïve. Nevertheless, he does learn from his mistakes and takes back his inheritance with more exuberance and spirit than before. The Wind in the Willows has several momentous adventures (of which Toad is the main instigator) woven into the fabric of Grahame’s idyllic narrative. Calm tones and prolonged feelings capture the environment of The Wind of the Willows, for the author measured time differently, not by action or adventure scenes but by the intrinsic value of life, a virtual nature hike of indeterminable length according to the viewer’s scale of merit.

Grahame watches every wisp of wind or change with intent focus. To hope for a quick story with animals is ridiculous, because The Wind in the Willows has only occasional outbursts of this kind. Grahame extracts humanity’s view of time and replaces it with that of animals, asking his readers to slow down and reassess the world from the eyes of his tiny heroes. There are battles, triumphs, injustice, and even the sting of pragmatism for the romantic Toad and his somewhat practical friends. Simplistic and emitting unrestrained longing, The Wind in the Willows is a classic that children will always adore and adults will never forget.

The Wind in the Willows is available in local libraries and bookstores in Fresno, and online.