In this way the actual structure of the book is fictionalised. Anthony Browne's picture books are striking studies in postmodernism. His combination of impossible pictures, surrealism, parody and ironic interplay produce powerful social comment. To protect himself and his girlfriend, Millie, Willy pursues the advertising myth of 'might is right' only to subsequently wound his bravura in his collision with a lamp post. The kitchen is ordered and neat, square shapes are repeated from the cupboards and wallpaper to the shadow cast by the table.
Colours accentuate the sense of clinical detachment.
The reader becomes increasingly uncomfortable with Browne's exposure of attitudes. Images of the family are small, irregular in outline, stylized portraits, often looking straight at the reader. Surrealistic elements include a man with a beak like nose and a suited figure with a pigs head. In contrast the animals and their enclosures have a thick dark border, style is realistic and often the animals are turned away. These two types of illustration create a tension between reality and self delusion.