In 'The Story of Ferdinand', what does Ferdinand do instead of fighting?

In “The Story of Ferdinand,” Ferdinand smells the flowers instead of fighting. He is a peaceful young bull who prefers sitting beneath a cork tree and enjoying the flowers to butting heads with the other bulls.

Written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson, the picture book was published in 1936. Other bulls dream of being selected for bullfights in Madrid, but Ferdinand has no interest in proving his strength. His unusual behavior becomes the central joke and the central moral of the story.

Ferdinand is accidentally chosen when he sits on a bumblebee. The sting makes him run, snort, and stamp wildly, so the men selecting a bull mistakenly believe he is ferocious. In the bullring, however, Ferdinand notices flowers in the women’s hair, sits down, and calmly smells them instead of attacking the matador.

The men are disappointed, but Ferdinand is eventually returned to his pasture. The story celebrates individuality, gentleness, and refusing to follow an aggressive crowd. Its famous bullfight setting has also led readers to interpret the book as an antiwar or anti-violence parable.