The Velveteen Rabbit: Encyclopedia II - The Velveteen Rabbit - Plot Summary

The Velveteen Rabbit - Plot Summary

A boy receives a Velveteen Rabbit for Christmas and forgets the toy. In the meantime, the Velveteen Rabbit is snubbed by other more expensive or mechanical toys.

During dialogue between the nursery toys and live animals, it is discovered that a toy can become real if its owner really and truly loves him. Love has nothing to do with how often the toy is played with, or how long it has been owned, but rather with pure and true love. There is also a discussion on what it means to be real. The Velveteen Rabbit even meets very well made toys with no seams, who are actually real rabbits and the Velveteen Rabbit learns what the differences between himself and the real rabbits.

When the boy's china dog is misplaced, the Velveteen Rabbit takes the place as the boy's constant companion. The rabbit became shabbier, but the boy loved him no matter what.

This companionship lasted through the winter through the next summer and then tragedy struck as the boy fell ill with scarlet fever. The boy was too ill to play for a very long time and upon his recovery he was ordered to go to the seaside on doctor's orders. The boy wishes to take the Rabbit with him, but his Nana forbids him to take the diseased toy. Not only can he not take the Rabbit, she says it must be burned in order to disinfect the house from the germs.

The boy is given a new plush rabbit with glass eyes and is so excited about the trip to the seaside, he forgets his old Velveteen Rabbit. The Rabbit escapes the sack and meets the nursey magic fairy. The Rabbit thinks he was real before, but the fairy tells him he was only real to the boy. She then makes him into a real rabbit and runs to join rabbits in the wild.

The subsequent spring, the boy sees the Rabbit hopping in the wild and thinks he looks like his old Velveteen rabbit, but never knew that it was.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Plot Summary", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki