'Bunny': Interpretation & analysis
At first, I just couldn't find myself in this sick world of psychedelic 'Bunny' but the more I analysed it, the more fascinating it became.
'Bunny' is a really weird story of Samantha who's a student majoring in creative writing. She gets into a group of uncannily close friends, four girls being Samantha's fellow students. The quartette invites Samantha to their meetings that are similar to witchlike rituals. The goal of these rituals is to transmute titular bunnies into human men. Soon, the boundaries of reality fades both for Samantha and a reader.
What is 'Bunny' About?
'Bunny' is a really weird story of Samantha who's a student majoring in creative writing. She gets into a group of uncannily close friends, four girls being Samantha's fellow students. The quartette invites Samantha to their meetings that are similar to witchlike rituals. The goal of these rituals is to transmute titular bunnies into human men. Soon, the boundaries of reality fades both for Samantha and a reader.
'Bunny' and Wonderland
While reflecting upon the true meaning of 'Bunny', the first element of the novel that catched my attention was of course the titular bunny. And obviously the first thing that crossed my mind while thinking 'bunny' is the White Rabbit from 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderlands'. And the more I think about it, 'Bunny' is stronger than Lewis Carroll's work.
Considering the fact that Alice wakes up at the end of Carroll's novel, Wonderland is a land of Alice's dreams and her id - an unconscious part of mind. Id is basically the part in the human mind of natural and erotic needs and instincts but also traumas. Freud believed that dreams are a space where id is exposed.
Rabbits in some cultures are spiritual guides, animals of shamanism, magical journeys and broaden perception. The White Rabbit is a character that brings Alice to Wonderland, so he's the one to make Alice familiar with her id part of mind, the things she can't to accept or doesn't want to. Analogously in 'Bunny' - bunnies are the way the girls' ids become visible and physical. Samantha is the one whose transformation of bunny into man is the best try among all other girls, so I guess her id is the most likely to become conscious? Probably she was the most mentally unstable?
The meaning of Max
Max, a man Samantha's bunny is transmuted into, is a reflection of Samantha herself. It explains why he reads Samantha's mind and knows her every secret. He's just her and she's him. He's an incarnation of her id. Max enables Samantha to come across those parts of her mind Samantha ignores. He represents Samantha's (probably erotic?) love for Ava since Max starts to date Ava, Samantha's best friend. Max also represents Samantha's urge to control and humiliate Bunnies when he makes out with every Bunny at the same time and makes them obsessed. And when Samantha kills Max, she somehow once again takes control of her id and make it unconscious I think.
Well, I know that my interpretation isn't perfectly straightforward but that's the best I can do since 'Bunny' was probably the most unclear book I've read for a long time. But let me know what you think about this interpretation of 'Bunny' and whether you've read this book. Also I want to recommend you another cool interpretation I've found (ironically) on Reddit:
Cover image © Bloomsbury Publishing House. Used with permission.
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