Character Analysis
The Velveteen Rabbit first encounters wild rabbits when he's playing outside with the Boy one summer day. At first, he doesn't even totally get what these guys are. He thinks they're just toys that are built better than he is:
They were rabbits like himself, but quite furry and brand-new. They must have been very well made, for their seams didn't show at all, and they changed shape in a queer way when they moved; one minute they were long and thin and the next minute fat and bunchy, instead of always staying the same like he did. Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses, while the Rabbit stared hard to see which side the clockwork stuck out, for he knew that people who jump generally have something to wind them up. But he couldn't see it. They were evidently a new kind of rabbit altogether. (27)
To be fair, the wild rabbits don't realize that the Velveteen Rabbit isn't one of them either. They ask him to come play with them and the Rabbit keeps making excuses for why he can't. The wild rabbits start to turn into mean girls a little bit when they make fun of the Rabbit. They want him to prove his bunny bonafides and, of course, the Rabbit can't do it. So they just laugh at him.
Now that's not nice.
The saddest moment happens when one of the wild rabbits finally comes up and smells the Velveteen Rabbit:
He came so close this time that his long whiskers brushed the Velveteen Rabbit's ear, and then he wrinkled his nose suddenly and flattened his ears and jumped backwards.
"He doesn't smell right!" he exclaimed. "He isn't a rabbit at all! He isn't real!" (43-44)
Okay, these bunnies do seem cruel, but look at it from their point of view. They stumble across something that looks like a rabbit and they talk to it, then find out it's not a rabbit. Is this some kind of weird trap? Are they in danger? Just what was that thing with no hind legs? The Velveteen Rabbit doesn't know what wild rabbits are, but these guys also don't know that stuffed bunnies exist either.
In the end, the wild rabbits redeem themselves when the take in the Velveteen Rabbit to be one of their own. After the Fairy transforms him into a wild rabbit, all the other bunnies seem to follow her advice to be "very kind to him and teach him all he needs to know in Rabbit-land" (73). These guys become his friends and they welcome him home.
And hopefully the Velveteen Rabbit teaches them not to make fun of stuffed rabbits ever again.