Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories The Big Brag, Lines 76 – 85 Summary

Enter Worm 

  • Oh brother. Who's this guy? Just as we thought we'd found the king of braggarts, we've got this little worm wiggling on into the contest.
  • Interesting that the usurper again comes from down below—"way down by [the bear's] feet," to be precise. It's no accident that the worm is so low down, nor that he's old and gets around by the decidedly undignified method of crawling. This ups the stakes for the bear and rabbit's precious egos. If this pathetic guy can beat them, they'll really have come down in the world.
  • At first, it seems like the worm is going be an old sage character, calling the protagonists on their braggart ways.
  • But rather than stopping at, "You both think you're great. But I think you are not," he continues on to say, "You're not half as good as a fellow like me," and then he sets out to prove he's better than him with the power of his eyes.
  • And yet, even in this moment of bravado, the worm is clearly aware of his position in life, calling the rabbit and the bear "big boasting guys." He knows he's smaller than the others, but that doesn't mean his eyes can't beat their ears and nose, respectively.
  • Just watch.