Horton Hears a Who!
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Horton Hears a Who! (1954) is a rhyming story by Dr. Seuss. As in the first book involving Horton (Horton Hatches the Egg), Horton exhibits his willingness to protect others, even at the expense of his own safety.
The Whos would later be used again for How the Grinch Stole Christmas (although the Whos would, in this book, be visible to everyone around).
The story is mentioned in the song Groove is in the Heart by the band Deee-Lite.
Contents |
Plot
The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant who one day, on the fifteenth of May in the Jungle of Nool to be precise, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. It turns out the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a city called "Who-ville", inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants known as Whos.
The Whos ask Horton (who, though he cannot see them, is able to hear them quite well due to his extraordinary hearing) to protect them from harm, to which Horton happily obliges, proclaiming throughout the book that "a person's a person, no matter how small". In doing so he is ridiculed and nearly murdered by the other animals, such as the Wickersham Brothers and the Sour Kangaroo, in the jungle for believing in something that they are unable to see or hear. Horton tells the Whos that they needed to make themselves heard to the other animals, lest they end up as part of "beezlenut stew", which they finally accomplish.
Philosophical underpinnings
Horton Hears a Who! can be viewed as an introduction to the philosophical idea of microcosm.
"A representation of something on a much smaller scale. Microcosm means 'small world,' and in the thought of the Renaissance, it was applied specifically to human beings, who were considered to be small-scale models of the universe, with all its variety and contradiction." [1]
The ability of "a very small, very small shirker named Jo-Jo" to bring his community's strained cacophony to the critical mass of perceptibility to others in Horton's world, who denied the existence of Whoville and intended to make their microcosm an ingredient in their stew, is clearly the nidus of the moral. The precept that even the smallest person's smallest voice can make a difference then crystallizes from this. Ultimately, a hope for anyone's voice to be the straw that broke the camel of status quo's back provides hope for each individual in a society as well as suggesting a degree of personal responsibility in the construction and maintenance of an individual's social, cultural, and political metastructure.
Involvement in the abortion debate
The book (most notably Horton's recurring phrase "a person's a person, no matter how small") has found its way to the center of the recurring debate over abortion. Several pro-life groups have adopted the phrase in support of their views; the American Life League (a Catholic pro-life group) has even published a pamphlet using the phrase as the title. This has brought sharp criticism from Dr. Seuss' widow, Audrey Geisel (who is strongly pro-choice), and at least one lawsuit has been filed in Canada to stop the use of the phrase.
Cartoon
It was made into an animated cartoon in 1970 by Chuck Jones, with narration by Hans Conried; it also provides the basic plot for the 2000 Broadway musical Seussical.
2008 film
It is going to be made into a computer-animated film by Blue Sky Studios, the animation arm of 20th Century Fox, with projected release in Summer 2008. [2]
Beezlenut
A beezlenut is an imaginary nut, from which oil is extracted. In the book, Horton saves the Whos from being boiled in Beezlenut oil by the Wickersham Brothers. The beezlenut made its (one and only?) appearance in Horton Hears a Who!
References
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3th ed., edited by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. [3]