Mattimeo Essay, Research Paper

Author: Brian Jacques Publisher:

The Putnam & Grosset Book Group Date of Publication:

December 1991 Setting: The story takes place in

Mossflower, a forested area where the animals of Redwall

live. It takes place in fantasy times. There are no humans,

just animals roam the earth. The Main Characters: The main

characters are Mattimeo who is the son of the great warrior

mouse of Redwall, Matthias. Matthais is the great warrior of

Redwall whose son has been taken captive by Slagar the

Cruel. Jess squirrel is a normal Redwall inhabitant whose

son has also been taken by Slagar. Orlando the Ax is a huge

badger and his daughter Jube has been captured by Slagar.

The last main character, Basil Stag Hair, is a veteran foot

fighter rabbit who has an enormous appetite. Summary: This

is a story of a boy becoming a man. It is told through animals

and fantasy. It starts with the animals of Redwall having a

peaceful celebration of the new season. Slagar and his evil

henchmen came to the celebration disguised as entertainers.

They spiked the animals¹ drinks with a sleeping potion and

kidnapped all of the children of Redwall, including

Mattimeo, son of the great warrior mouse Matthias. When

they awaken they send out a search party to find the

children. Matthias, Jess, and Basil discover the trail of the

missing children. On their way they met Orlando the Ax who

was also looking for his daughter, Jube. They found out that

Slagar was kidnapping children and taking them as slaves in

a slave train to an unknown realm. They finally caught up to

Slagar and were going to rescue their children but were

fooled into going into a cave. Slagar then dumped huge

rocks over the entrance to the cave. It took the animals days

to get out of the cave. Slagar took the slaves to an

underground kingdom where they would work for an evil

ruler. The slaves were then put in a cell without anything to

eat or drink. Matthias and his companions thought they had

lost their children forever because they couldn¹t find an

entrance to the underground kingdom. Finally, while sitting

on a rock, the rock slid away to reveal a staircase into the

ground. They went down the staircase and then were

attacked by rats. By mistake they found the children who

joined with Matthias in fighting the rats. At the end they

defeated the rats and the evil emperor. They went home and

Mattimeo had finally after experiencing these events become

a man. He took over his fathers place as the warrior of

Redwall. Impression: I really liked this book because of all

its suspense. The author kept my attention constantly. For

example, in the book the author would cut off right at a very

suspenseful part and switch to another part. From a scale of

one to ten I would give this book a ten. I recommend it to

whoever likes fast moving stories and suspense.