Rat might have a firm idea of home, but he also sees his home as wherever his friends are. Though he had felt homesick for most of the journey, he here grows instinctively protective of his new property and homestead. This passage - which describes Rat's sudden outburst after the motorcar destroys the caravan - gives layered insight into Rat's character. 'His home-sickness had quite slipped away from him, and for the moment he was the skipper of the canary-coloured vessel driven on a shoal by the reckless jockeying of rival mariners, and he was trying to recollect all of the fine and biting things he used to say to masters of seam-launches when their wash, as they drove too near the bank, used to flood his parlour carpet at home.' Narrator, p. This moment, the first journey we see the animals take with Toad, sets up much of the dynamic that continues to resonate through the novel. Whereas Rat sees the cart as requiring hard work, Toad sees it as an idyllic symbol of excitement. And still, the differing attitudes towards the cart reveals the differences in characterization.

For instance, the characters are always interested in adventures, since they see the wide world as an exciting place to visit. However, the themes he touches upon are quite central to the novel as a whole.

This passage - from Toad’s monologue about his new caravan - is meant to convince Mole and Rat to join him on the road.

The open road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing! And mind, this is the very finest cart of its sort that was ever built, without any exception.' Toad, p. 'There’s real life for you, embodied in that little cart.

The open road wind in the willows