Bunnicula — Chapter 2

About This Passage

This passage shows Chester achieving a moment of self-awareness that he immediately fails to act on. He has just looked out the window, discovered that the spooky music is only his neighbor playing the violin, and felt relief at the ordinary explanation. He even tells himself, in clear and sensible language, that he needs to stop reading horror stories late at night because they are 'beginning to affect' his mind. This is exactly the right diagnosis. But within a paragraph, Chester will turn back, see the rabbit moving in the moonlight, and decide the rabbit has fangs after all. The passage is teaching a writer how to render the gap between knowing what is right and being able to do what is right — a gap that is one of the great themes of literature.

Narration Prompt

In your own words, tell the story of this chapter. What were the most important moments? What made them important — and how do you know?

Discussion Questions

1. Chapter 1 ended with Chester wishing the rabbit had been named Fluffy — a sign that Chester was already uncomfortable with the new arrival. Now in Chapter 2, Chester is alone with the rabbit in the moonlight, has just been reading 'The Fall of the House of Usher' by Edgar Allan Poe, and starts to see the rabbit as a vampire. Which is more responsible for Chester's vampire theory: the jealousy he was already feeling, or the horror stories he reads, or the late-night moonlight, or some combination? Defend your reading.
2. Chester achieves a moment of clear self-awareness when he tells himself, 'I've really got to stop reading these horror stories late at night. It's beginning to affect my mind.' This is the correct diagnosis. But he immediately fails to act on it — within seconds he is seeing fangs again. Is Chester's failure to act on his own good advice a personal weakness, or is it a normal feature of how minds actually work? What does the chapter seem to think?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide