1.

Summarized the points raised by Paz Latorena in her essay "Educating the Literary
Taste", and comment if such standards are applicable today.

Paz Latorena discusses that literary taste is taught. Similar to teaching a child about morality
from right and wrong, literary taste is fundamental in critiquing if literature is deemed to be
beautiful or vulgar. However, when left unguided, a person’s literary taste can be spoiled and the
spoilage can spread from one connoisseur to another. There are three types of literary values:
Intellectual value, Emotional value, and Ethical value. Intellectual value enriches the mind and
counters what is known; Emotional value enriches the soul and reexamines the vitality of life;
lastly, Ethical value enriches doubt to reexamine moral judgment. When our mind, soul, and
humanity are enriched further by literature then this literature is dimmed to be beautiful. In
addition, Paz Latorena discusses the function of literature according to the distinction between its
form and content. According to Aristotle, the form is important because of “art for art’s sake”
which pertains to the aesthetic value of literature. According to Plato, content is important
because literature is for teaching- didacticism. However, according to Horace, it should both be
intellectual and delightful.

The standards of literary taste are applicable today and are more prevalent that we follow the
words of Paz Latorena. There are three situations where these standards are applicable and
should be applied: First, because of the ever-expanding internet platform, there are more
materials available to us as readers. You would think that it is great! Easy distribution of reading
material from different genres of writers. However, because literature availability is ordinary, our
mindset is - payment should not be required. Authors who took years in mastering their literary
taste are forsaken and readers find other means of literary entertainment from free e-books, may
that be from the previous free version of Wattpad or to not reading at all, our literary taste is
smeared with free class books that forsake the standards of literary taste. Second, the acceptance
of writers to be heard only as script and movie writers. We say that literature is now found in
movies; however, there is still a significant difference between reading and immersing yourself
as the character herself and watching it done by others. Reading exposes our vulnerability and
enlightens us on a personal level which is why evolving the writer’s literary taste is important to
create that synergy between writers and readers. Lastly, it is always within man’s nature to
explore intellect, find delight and evolve. The materials we read changes how we perceive
ourselves and others, and this affects how we write. If we read good tasteful books, then we
produce good tasteful writings, and this cycle continues.

2. Drawing out meanings of symbolic expressions by discussing the Skin Horse’s and the
toy Rabbit’s dialogues, events, and other characters’ actions that lead to the idea of reality.
The evolution of the rabbit coincides with the story’s cycle of seasons: winter, spring, summer,
and autumn.

WINTER.

The first encounter with the velveteen rabbit was during winter. The symbolism for winter can
be sorrow and isolation. This is the rabbit’s lowest point, at this time he lacks self-esteem and
compares himself with the modern toys. He was stuck in the cupboard unplayed.

Symbol 1: VELVETEEN RABBIT VS MECHANICAL TOY.

The velveteen rabbit was described to be hand-made stuffed with sawdust and sawn with
velveteen. This shows the care in making the rabbit as opposed to the mechanical toys that are
factory-made. This is a prelude to how the velveteen rabbit would prevail even though he thinks
that the mechanical toys are better.

Symbol 2: THE SKIN HORSE:

From the lowest point of the velveteen rabbit, the wise elderly Skin horse talks about how to be
Real. The prelude of the horse’s dialogue on whether being real would hurt, as the horse
answered “sometimes”, denotes that in order for you to hurt, you must first care, and in
order to care, you must be alive (REAL). Moreover, the dialogue by the horse expects the
physical transformation of the rabbit.

“most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and
very shabby.”

Step 1A on to be real: INTRODUCTION TO A BURROW

The boy “made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the
real rabbits lived in.”

Step 1B on to be real : SENSE OF TIME TO APPRECIATE MOMENTS

When nana gave the rabbit to the boy, the transformation to be real started. In order for you to be
real, you need to have the sense of time to appreciate moments

“And he missed, too, those long moonlight hours in the nursery.”

Spring symbolizes hope for the rabbit.

Step 2A on to be real: PLAYING LIKE A RABBIT

The boy introduced him to the garden, where he soon would encounter real rabbits.

“He was wet through with the dew and quite earthy from diving into the burrows the Boy had
made for him in the flower bed”

Step 2B on to be real: EMOTION OF LOVE

When the boy defended the rabbit on him being real, the rabbit was filled with love.

“That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart
that it almost burst.”

SUMMER

Summer symbolizes the bright future and the highest moments for the velveteen rabbit.

During this summer, the rabbit continued to look shabbier and he loved it. However, naturally,
during summer, this is when other animals come and play, and the velveteen would encounter
another rabbit.

Prelude by the horse during winter with the rabbit's physical transformation.

“Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as
much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears
turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked
like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy”

Step 3 on to be real: RECOGNIZING WHAT IS A REAL RABBIT FROM A TOY

In order for him to be real, he needed to know what is a real rabbit- and he is not it.

“Velveteen Rabbit had no hind legs at all! The back of him was made all in one piece, like a
pincushion.”

AUTUMN.

Autumn symbolizes rebirth and maturity.

Step 4 on to be real: EMOTION OF SADNESS

The ability of the rabbit to shed tears symbolizes his transformation of being real almost at the
end.

“And then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen a flower grew out of the
ground”,

Symbol 1: Golden cup: symbolizes the cup of life for the rabbit given by the fairy.

“a mysterious flower…. blossom like a golden cup."

"AUTUMN PASSED AND WINTER, AND IN THE SPRING.."

The boy met the rabbit once again during spring but in a different state - he is now real.