The Story of a Woman's Determination

       "One day a little country girl bunny with a brown skin and a little cotton-ball of a tail said, 'Some day I shall grow up to be an Easter Bunny -- you wait and see!'"  These lines from The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward propelled me to be an independent, goal-seeking woman.  This was one of my favorite books as a child - and still is.  However, now I see it in a different context.  As a child, I saw the independent woman succeeding; now I see the success of a determined, minority country mother who didn't let her childhood dreams die with the birth of her children.

        As a child, I thought it was so exciting to see the country girl bunny live up to her dream to be an Easter Bunny.  Others in her community tell her she can't succeed because she isn't a fine white bunny or a fast Jack Rabbit.  And after the birth of her twenty-one bunnies, the townsfolk have an "I told you so" type of attitutde.  This makes her even more determined; I love her determination.  Others tell her she can't succeed, but she knows she can despite her "limitations."

        One of her "limitations" is that she is a woman. . . . Printed about twenty years after the Women's Suffrage Movement (my copy of this book has a1939 copyright), this certainly is a story of women's independence. . . . Not only were [women] fighting for the right to vote, they were fighting for the right to be working women with children.  That became a commonplace with World War II, which was also near this time period.

        Another "limitation" is shown in the pictures.  The illustrations in The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes show no female bunnies competing for the spot of the fifth Easter Bunny.  Most of those competing are sleek, white, finely dressed males.  Ultimately, though, Old Grandfather chooses the country bunny; her kind and wise manner and the attention she pays to her children win him over.

        Old Grandfather seems to be the only bunny without prejudices toward her.  As a child - and still - I thought he was the only bunny who saw her true worth.  Now, however, I see that he stands for something more.  He is the representation of true fairness, the one character in the story who believes in the country bunny.  And all women of the early 1900s were hoping for at least one person to accept and trust in their plight, like Old Grandfather trusts the country bunny.
     
     

          - Michelle Ketcham, August 2000
       

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