Kenneth Grahame’s "The Wind in the Willows," and Philip Pullman’s "The Golden Compass," look at friendship and community from opposite perspectives. In The Wind in the Willows, friendship creates community, and overcomes conflicts while in The Golden Compass, the characters are selfish, and sustain themselves in the experience of community. In Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows the characters create a warm, caring and supportive network of friendship; a community that takes care of its members. Community and friendship start to form when Rat and Mole set up a companionable home together, with Rat displaying generous kindness to Mole. When Mole ventures into the Wild Wood on his own to look for Badger, Rat “strap[s] a belt around his waist, shove[s] a brace of pistols into it, took up a stout cudgel that [stands] in a corner of the hall, and set[s] off for the Wild Wood at a smart pace” (Grahame 58). Rat arrives at the Wild Wood, and it is already starting to be dark, however he plunges “without hesitation into the wood” (Grahame 58). Rat is afraid of the Wild Wood, but it does not stop him from going to the rescue of his friend. Rat will go well beyond his comfort level if he believes a fellow community member needs help, solidify the importance of friendship and community. Badger is the beacon of warmth, embodiment of community, in the middle of the Wild Wood. Rat and Mole knock on Badgers door in the middle of the night . Badger at first annoyed opens the door, and exclaims: “What Ratty, my dear little man! Come along in, both of you, at once. Why, you must be perished! Well, I never! Lost in the snow! And in the Wild Wood, too, and at this time of night! But come in with you.” (Grahame 78) Badger gives Rat and Mole a fine supper, and a warm bed. When they awaken, it is to find even more community members being nurtured – two young hedgehogs who have got lost on their way to school. Such is Badger’s reputation that when other community members become concerned about the disappearance of Rat and Mole, Otter comes to Badger’s home to look for them, and tells them: “They were all in a great state of alarm along River Bank when I arrived this morning. Rat never been home all night – nor Mole neither – something dreadful must have happened, they said; and the snow had covered up all your tracks, of course. But I knew that when people were in any fix they mostly went to Badger, or else Badger got to know of it somehow, so I came straight off here, through the Wild Wood and the snow!” (Grahame 82) Rat, Mole, and the two hedge