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The Badger acts as the social group’s metaphorical elder statesman and an authority on the local area and its rules. He is slow, sleepy, overweight, and thoughtful. He is also powerful, and his word carries weight among the creatures of the Wild Wood and beyond. The Badger has important knowledge that the other animals do not possess, like the existence of the secret passageway into Toad Hall, a fact that the Toad’s father shared in confidence long ago. The Badger is not a particularly sociable creature but, like the Water Rat and the Mole, he is happy to help a friend in need. Unlike those two, however, the Badger has a broader opinion of what his friends need. He helps not only the Water Rat and the Mole when they are lost in the forest, but he also helps the Toad, who breaches social boundaries and threatens the neighborhood’s reputation, in the Badger’s opinion. He treats the Toad sternly, lecturing him and placing him under house arrest for the Toad’s benefit and the good of the community. In this, he demonstrates a broader view of society than that of the Mole and the Water Rat.
