بریده‌ای از کتاب خرگوش مخملی اثر مارجری ویلیامز

Site 5: We look on as the rabbit becomes the boy’s favorite toy. The boy  plays directly with the rabbit, takes him on outings, has the rabbit stand by  while he does other things, and takes the toy to bed every night. The rabbit  is sometimes left behind by the boy; but it is then searched for and found  because the rabbit matters to the boy and it has become a part of how he does  things. In describing these real events of a boy playing with and caring for his toy, Williams presents the relationship of the boy and the rabbit in terms fitting for a relationship between two human beings. They are depicted as doing  things together, as whispering to one another, and as playing games with each  other. Williams also describes the rabbit as if he possesses the ability to have  cares of his own:

The rabbit is described as missing the Skin Horse back in  the toy room, as struggling to get used to being nearly smothered under the  boy’s bed covers, as being happy to be accompanying the boy, and as snuggling closer to the boy at bedtime. The boy’s sense of the living character of  his relationship with the rabbit is captured most pointedly when the velveteen  rabbit goes missing one night and the boy implores Nana to find it. When she  exclaims with frustration that the recovered rabbit, now damp with dew from  the garden, is just a toy and that the boy is making a fuss over a mere toy, the  boy, indignant, responds that the rabbit is not a toy:

His bunny is “real.” The  narrative marks this announcement as a significant moment for the once again  anthropomorphized rabbit: The rabbit is described as realizing that he has at  last been transformed from a mere toy into something real.