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The River
Cars symbolize Toad’s immaturity and his total lack of regard for anyone but himself. They also symbolize the modern, industrialized world, which the novel frames as being in opposition to the idyllic natural setting it presents. Toad first sees a car when he, Mole, and Rat are out in Toad’s caravan (a large horse-drawn carriage). The car zooms up behind the party quickly, making noise and raising dust, and it frightens the horse so badly that the horse dumps the caravan into the ditch. This is a dangerous experience—but rather than see the car’s driver as a menace, Toad is entranced. Thus begins his love of cars and of driving, which results in Toad purchasing and then crashing seven cars in a short amount of time. He spends weeks in the hospital for injuries sustained in crashes, and he gets in trouble regularly for being rude to policemen who try to check his poor behavior on the road. But Toad doesn’t care at all—he cares only for himself, and for the freedom and excitement that only a car can provide. His friends, namely Badger, frame Toad’s love of cars as akin to an addiction or an illness, describing it as an “affliction” that’s negatively affecting Toad’s ability to be compassionate and considerate. Ultimately, Toad’s friends are able to make him see that cars are going to be Toad’s undoing: if he wants to both survive and stay out of prison, he must give up cars. In the end, Toad does just that, which symbolizes his choice to mature and think of others, as the novel suggests a good gentleman should.
More broadly, cars symbolize the modern world that the novel implies is encroaching on areas like the idyllic riverbank and surrounding rural areas. While boats and even Toad’s caravan (that is, non-mechanized modes of transportation that suggest an earlier, simpler time before the car’s invention) are framed as positive or neutral entities, the car is portrayed as nothing but a menace. Toad’s selfishness is certainly an issue—but more than that, it’s that his selfishness causes him to fall in love with a modern machine that so violently threatens his and his friends’ simple, pastoral way of life.
Cars Quotes in The Wind in the Willows
The The Wind in the Willows quotes below all refer to the symbol of Cars. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter One
Quotes
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. […]
“In or out of ‘em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not.”
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Chapter Two
Quotes
“What dust clouds shall spring up behind me as I speed on my reckless way! What carts I shall fling carelessly into the ditch in the wake of my magnificent onset! Horrid little carts—common carts—canary-coloured carts!”
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Chapter Four
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His two friends assented, quite understanding his point. No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.
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Chapter Six
Quotes
“You’ve disregarded all the warnings we’ve given you, you’ve gone on squandering the money your father left you, and you’re getting us animals a bad name in the district by your furious driving and your smashes and your rows with the police. Independence is all very well, but we animals never allow our friends to make fools of themselves beyond a certain limit; and that limit you’ve reached.”
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“Toad, I want you solemnly to repeat, before your friends here, what you fully admitted to me in the smoking-room just now. First, you are sorry for what you’ve done, and you see the folly of it all?”
There was a long, long pause. Toad looked desperately this way and that, while the other animals waited in grave silence. At last, he spoke.
“No!” he said, a little sullenly, but stoutly; “I’m not sorry. And it wasn’t folly at all! It was simply glorious!”
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Chapter Ten
Quotes
It is all very well, when you have a light heart, and a clear conscience, and money in your pocket, and nobody scouring the country for you to drag you off to prison again, to follow where the road beckons and points, not caring whither. The practical Toad cared very much indeed, and he could have kicked the road for its helpless silence when every minute was of importance to him.
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Chapter Eleven
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“Now, Toady, I don’t want to give you pain, after all you’ve been through already; but, seriously, don’t you see what an awful ass you’ve been making of yourself? On your own admission you have been handcuffed, imprisoned, starved, chased, terrified out of your life, insulted, jeered at, and ignominiously flung into the water—by a woman, too! Where’s the amusement in that? Where does the fun come in? And all because you must needs go and steal a motor car.”
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Get the entire The Wind in the Willows LitChart as a printable PDF.
Cars Symbol Timeline in The Wind in the Willows
The timeline below shows where the symbol Cars appears in The Wind in the Willows. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Two
...walks with the horse (who feels very left out), Rat and Toad walk behind the cart. Rat pretends to listen to Toad as Toad chatters on. Then, in the distance behind...
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...to get help. Mole is concerned for Toad’s safety, but Rat is too angry to care. Before too long, though, Toad runs up behind his friends. Rat tells Toad to lodge...
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...area, leave the horse at the inn, and arrange for someone to deal with the cart. Then, they catch the train and deposit Toad at Toad Hall. Rat and Mole are...
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Chapter Six
...in hand,” as they discussed in the winter. Badger says he’s heard that a new car is arriving at Toad Hall today. Toad is surely getting dressed in the “hideous” clothes...
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...of animals are supposed to walk. When they reach Toad Hall, there’s a big red car in the driveway. Toad rushes out the front door, dressed in goggles, a cap, gaiters,...
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...his father’s money and for ruining all the animals’ reputations by driving terribly, crashing his car, and fighting with the police. He leads Toad into the smoking room for a more...
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Toad is silent—and then says that he’s not sorry, and that cars are “glorious,” not silly. Badger is perplexed, but Toad says he’ll say anything under pressure....
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...shifts. At first, Toad seems to try to upset them by arranging chairs into a car shape and pretending to drive, making “ghastly” noises. But as time goes on, Toad becomes...
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...huge luncheon. Halfway through the meal, he hears his favorite sound: poop-poop! Toad hears the car turn into the yard and tries to control his emotions. The party from the car...
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There’s nobody watching the car. Before Toad knows it, passion seizes him, and he’s driving down the road as fast...
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...of the Bench of Magistrates states that Toad has been found guilty of stealing a car, of endangering the public with his driving, and of “gross impertinence” to the police. The...
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Chapter Eight
...Hall, and he’s just escaped from a dungeon. Mr. Toad admits that he “borrowed” a car while its owners were eating, and magistrates don’t think highly of actions like that. The...
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Chapter Ten
...in great spirits. He has money, he’s almost home, and the food makes him feel “careless” and confident. He walks along, thinking of his adventures, and decides he’s the cleverest animal...
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Confidently, Toad steps into the road—until he sees that the car is the very same one he stole not so long ago. He sinks to the...
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...starts off slow. As he gets faster, one of the men warns him to be careful—and Toad loses his temper. He shouts that he’s not a washerwoman; he’s Toad, the “motor-car...
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This is a mistake, since they don’t stop the car first. Toad turns the wheel and crashes through a hedge—and the car goes right into...
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Chapter Eleven
...the water by a woman is amusing? And all because he needed to steal a car? Cars are nothing but trouble, but does Toad really need to steal them? It would...
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...suppress strange noises (like “poop-poop!”), he sighs and says Rat is right. He’s done with cars after his dip in the river, though he has another idea related to cars. Seeing...
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