Horton Hatches the Egg Transformation Quotes

If we want to read this story as an allegory for human gestation (duh), Horton is doing the equivalent of stocking up on prenatal vitamins, reading What to Expect When You're Expecting, and painting the nursery. When there's a baby on board, things start changing—big time.

Where's the love, y'all? Horton has changed—that's what fatherhood will do to you—and his friends aren't psyched about it.

Horton is one honest elephant. He doesn't pretend that he's thrilled with the whole being stuck on an egg thing. His changing emotions increase his complexity as a character and make him way more accessible to readers. We probably haven't experienced what Horton's going through, but we've all felt those kinds of emotions.

Hatching, of course, is a huge and dramatic symbol of transformation, and the climax of Horton Hatches the Egg. What interests us here is the way Horton's feelings for the egg have changed over the fifty-one weeks he's been sitting on it. Up until now, he's been calling it "this egg" (67, 92). Now (it's about time!) he says "my egg" (ahem, "My EGG!"), revealing the way he really feels about it.

Good luck explaining this one to your kids. The precocious ones who know a little about genetics might wonder if Horton was somehow the biological father of the egg in the first place. But hopefully they'll understand that the world of Horton is a little bit fantasy (and a lot bit Seuss), and Horton's devotion to the egg is so strong that he's somehow able to alter its DNA. Pretty cool trick. No wonder they say elephants are smart.