I knew there would be some gore elements when I first started reading. Although there are definitely some scenes that the audience should be wary of, especially those involving the hunter, the story doesn’t stand out to me as forbidden. It could be because I have had to read a lot of books with violence and many metaphorical aspects recently that this is just another in the list.
One thing that was made clear was that this book was not made for children. This feels like another instance correlation does not equal causation. Telling stories using animals is often used to teach children, but not all stories with animals should be used to teach children. There are multiple scenes that involve knowing the undertones of what is really happening and understanding the significance of why the characters act the way they do. There are also some scenes that describe blood and although it’s not something parents won’t want their kids to see, kids would be able to understand.
I appreciate how there could be multiple interpretations to the metaphors with a wide set of interpretations. At first the narrative seemed like it was only leading in one direction but it was still able to branch out and left the ending ambiguous.
When watching the movie I got frustrated with how Bambi doesn’t know what kind of danger he’s in. There were many instances when Bambi doesn’t know the kind of privilege he has and what dangers the other animals have to face. Bambi himself is prey but the only predator he has to worry about is the same one the whole forest has to worry about. This topic is brought up in more detail in the book. It gives Bambi a chance to be a more fleshed out character, to grow up, which leads him to become more isolated.
