In The Dry, rabbits represent the fierce competition for resources in Kiewarra, where the struggle to survive and regain control over the environment can cause people to take desperate, selfish measures. Rabbits are a nuisance species because they eat crops, putting them in direct competition with local farmers for the few crops that grow during Kiewarra’s prolonged drought. One of the most significant rabbits in the story appears in a flashback to Aaron Falk’s childhood in Kiewarra when he and his friend Luke took home a small rabbit. When Falk left Luke alone with the rabbit, he came back to find that the rabbit was dead, likely because Luke pet it too hard. The dark eyes of the rabbit resemble Ellie, Luke and Falk’s friend who drowned under mysterious, possibly murderous, circumstances when they were 16. Falk’s memory of Luke killing the rabbit makes him wonder if Luke was also capable of killing Ellie back then or even his whole family and himself in the present, 20 years after Ellie’s death. Killing rabbits is a cruel necessity of life for farmers in drought-stricken Kiewarra, who must sacrifice the rabbits for the health of their crops. Falk seems to wonder if Luke, a farmer, took this logic too far, justifying the killing of Ellie, Karen, Billy, and finally himself as necessary in the same way that culling rabbits is regain control of one’s land.
As it turns out, Luke didn’t murder his family (or Ellie), but Falk’s comparison of the murder victims to rabbits is still apt. Ellie dies because her abusive father, Deacon, finds out that Ellie wants to run away, and so he drowns her in a drunken rage to stop her from leaving. Deacon’s violent attempt to hold on to what he believes is his—Ellie—represents a perversion of the impulse to control nature that many of the farmers in Kiewarra have about their land. He wants to use force to control his daughter the same way farmers kill rabbits to reclaim his power over natural resources that due to the ongoing drought—and the climate change that caused it—are becoming increasingly sparce and difficult to control, leading people to respond with desperation and violence.
Rabbits Quotes in The Dry
“It died,” Luke said. His mouth was a tight line. He didn’t meet Aaron’s gaze.
“How?”
“I don’t know. It just did.”
Aaron asked a few more times but never got a different answer. The rabbit lay on its side, perfect but unmoving, its eyes black and vacant.
It would have been easy to miss, but when Falk thought about it afterwards, he felt sure. In the corner of his vision, Mrs. Sullivan had jerked her pale gaze up in surprise. She’d stared at her grandson for barely half a moment before casting her eyes back down. Falk had watched closely, but she didn’t look up again once.
“But seems it’d be better all round if you and I stuck to shooting rabbits together, don’t you reckon?”
“Stay back,” he said, rotating his hand. Falk caught a first glint of metal and his brain screamed gun, while a deeper part flitted frantically, trying to process what he was seeing. Raco tensed next to him. Whitlam unfolded his hand finger by finger, and Falk’s breath left his chest. He heard Raco groan long and deep. A thousand times worse than a gun.
It was a lighter.
Rabbits Symbol Timeline in The Dry
