Horton Hatches the Egg

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Horton Hatches the Egg is a book by Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Geisel, first published in 1940.

Horton would make another appearance in a Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears A Who, fourteen years later. Here, he would exhibit the same traits and endure similar ridicule.

The book concerns Horton (an elephant) convinced by an irresponsible bird named Mayzie into sitting on her egg while she takes a break--which proves to last for months. Of course, the absurd sight of an elephant sitting atop a tree makes quite a scene.

Horton is laughed at by his jungle friends, exposed to the elements, captured by hunters, forced to endure a terrible sea voyage, and finally placed in a travelling circus. All through the ordeal Horton repeats this refrain:

I meant what I said, and I said what I meant:

An elephant's faithful one hundred percent.

Mayzie finds Horton at the circus just in time to see her egg hatch. She demands the egg back, but is denied it by Horton and onlookers when it hatches into a tiny winged elephant.

The moral of the story is "be responsible, even when it's difficult." This moral is established in several ways. First, Mayzie's demonstrated irresponsibility in leaving her egg for someone else to watch leads to her losing the implied benefit of her egg- a baby Mayzie. Second, Horton's demonstrated responsibility in keeping his promise to Mayzie by staying with the egg, even when it's hard to do so, gives him the benefit of a baby Horton hatching from the egg. Finally, the elephant's ability to stay true and steadfast despite all manner of disasters carries a traditional spiritual message: he is faithful, not only to his external obligations, but to his inner self as well.

[edit] Film

Horton Hatches the Egg was adapted by Warner Brothers in 1942, directed by Bob Clampett. A couple of interesting gags appeared in the cartoon that were not in the original. A fish caricature of Peter Lorre says, upon seeing Horton pass by in a ship, "Now I've seen everything" and promptly shoots himself in the head (a grisly staple of the "Termite Terrace" gag writers). Mayzie also does a breathy Katharine Hepburn ("raaaaaaaa-hlly I do") at several points. The cheerful elephant (along with his son, at the end) sing a popular nonsense tune of that era, "The Hut-Sut Song" by Horace Heidt.