SOURCE: Hunt, Peter. “Main Streams and Backwaters: Narrative and Structure.” In The Wind in the Willows: A Fragmented Arcadia, pp. 25-47. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994.

In the following essay, Hunt analyzes the narrative structure of The Wind in the Willows, contending that “we cannot separate structure from symbol, symbol from character, or character from language.”

The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world. …

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The Shapes of the Narrative

[T]he trees were thicker and more like each other than ever. There seemed to be no end to this wood, and no beginning, and no difference...