Horton Hears A Who! Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who!

is a 2008 computer animated adventurous and

comedy filmed based on the book that was published in 1954 entitled with the same name. This movie
is about an elephant who hears cries for help on a tiny speck of dust that floats past Horton while he is
in the pool. In this paper, I will clarify what worldviews are represented in the movie. I will explain what
characters were true to their worldview. I will explain what obstacles deterred the characters from living
out their worldview. I will explain my mental, emotional, and spiritual reactions that I encountered
towards the movie. A simple story with a clear message, Horton Hears A Who! is much more than just a
children’s story. The depiction of Horton’s fight to save the Whos is even more poignant to us as adults
as we have a greater understanding of the way in which it is an effective microcosm of our own society.
Illustrating the power play between the collective group and the minorities, it also successfully depicts
human resilience and the fight for survival as well as the societal structures that exist even within the
smallest of communities. Although we perform these roles without realising, playing our part in the
society we have constructed, we do not challenge it as it is hegemonic. But Seuss’s imposition of this
construction on the Whos in the passage makes us look at it in a new light and his comical depiction of
the Whos’ lifestyle enables us to reflect upon our own societal structure in a critical manner yet still
remaining light-hearted.

When the reader first turns the page, their attention is drawn to the clock on the archway featured in
the centre of the page. Placed in a dominant central position to signify the importance of time in our
lives, the passage illustrates the Who’s and in turn our own preoccupation with time and our very
human need to account for how we spend our time due to our lack of it. The Who running up with the
cog to place in the clock is a symbol of our need to keep our lives running smoothly and in time, without
which anarchy occurs.

The crowded two-spread page alludes to this anarchy, with the Whos everywhere busy trying to repair
their broken homes and community. With his own personalized form of humour, Seuss’s playful
illustrations and comical characters engage the interest of children while the human characteristics of
the Whos enable them to relate to their plight and share their worry and sense of urgency, after the
aftermath of their own Who-sized disaster. The human activities of the Whos such as fixing a light bulb,
repairing a bike tyre and rebuilding a broken house are all adult occupations in the eyes of a child. It
thereby holds the interest of the child through both the comic relief and also the children’s admiration
and aspirations to these real-world societal structures.
The fantastical nature of their architecture allows the reader to follow the activity on the page in a
natural progression, going from the character holding the cog for the clock to the Who with the
umbrella, then the one sweeping, allowing our eyes move down the page, taking in the general
destruction and state of disarray without being overwhelmed as one might find if it were a news-paper
article featuring the destruction after a natural disaster. While this disaster is very much real for the
Who’s, their whimsical characteristics and loopy lines and arches convey to the child that this story is for
pleasure and enjoyment. Although the child enjoys a certain suspended disbelief, they are aware that
they are being indulged in, and this story is for fun and laughter.

Human beings have evolved to enjoy interaction and communication; hence language is a source of
pleasure; not simply for practical purposes. The play with language and words is a common
characteristic of children’s picture-books as children are attracted to rhyming sounds and can make
games out of almost anything. The plain use of colour in the passage, with mostly blue and white but
also patches of red intensify the focus on the illustrations themselves rather than distracting the
reader’s attention from the simple thread of the story.

The sing-song rhyme that is typical of Dr. Seuss’ picture books is a natural complement to the comically
stylized illustrations. In accompaniment, the illustrations support the child’s association with the size of
the characters. While the Mayor of Whoville is speaking, the text is small and hard to read, so it is easy
for the young reader to associate the small text with the small creature. Placed in the centre of white
space, it draws attention to the text and yet does not detract from the illustrations. The shades of blue
and small patches of pink are soothing to the eyes and signal to the child that this is fun and playful.

The large text of the first line “From down on the speck came the voice of the Mayor” develops the
anticipation of what the Mayor has to say and delaying it, heightens the readers expectation. The
second line, “We’ve really had trouble! Much more than our share” builds on the reader’s sense of
loyalty to Horton. Not only do we feel sympathy for his noble goals but we also feel anger at the other
animals for putting these obstacles in his path. The third line builds on the imagery of wrong-doing and
ill-will being inflicted on the creatures that Horton and now the reader feel obliged to protect. The
‘black-bottomed birdie” lends a sinister air to the text with the alliterative “b” sound and harsh
consonance. The sharp staccato ending of the end-rhyme with “dropped” and “stopped” compound this
uncomfortable feeling in the text and while it maintains the sing-song rhythmic flow it illustrates the
turmoil that has been caused in the little world of the Whos’.

The next two lines in the stanza use the repetition of the word our to connote a sense of belonging and
wistfulness to the Mayor’s lamentation and as readers this enables us to share his very human grief at
the loss of prized belongings. Once again the words “broken” and “smashed” with leaden consonnance
to the passage lending it an ominious hue, like the scene of wreckage, the flotsam and jetsam after the
tempest has passed. The bicycle tires may strike a chord particularly with a younger audience who have
perhaps only just started riding their first bike and can relate to this being their most prized possession.
The final plea of the Mayor, with a cry of desperation, makes the reader want to eagerly nod their heads
crying “Yes! Yes! We’ll help you”, and Horton’s strong yes only draws us closer to him and we attribute
to him qualities of bravery and courage to face the obstacles in his path. The emphasising of the words
“stick” and “through thin and through thick” are achieved through the repetition of the word stick and
the unconventional phrasing of the term “through thick and through thin”. In ending with the word
thick, it inevitably draws attention to the “small folk” who are the opposite of thick, emphasising their
vulnerability and helplessness.

In the wider context of the text as a whole, this passage in particular, emphasises the resilience of the
Whos and their will to survive. From our perspective, they are no more than a speck of dust, but that
speck of dust is their whole world. The speck of dust is an entire civilisation that has towns, churches
and schools; the very community-structured institutions that guide our own societies. Perhaps the
author is trying to suggest that it is human nature, to bounce back and when we are hard hit, it is these
basic institutions that stand for our values and what we believe in, that we try to fix first. In effect, it is
fundamentally the idea that we are trying to preserve.

By conveying this idea through a children’s story, Seuss seeks to impress on us the simplicity of it that
may have been there quite subconsciously at the back of our minds. But in the form of the text, we
associate Horton with ourselves, as natural guardians of our values, our children, all that we stand for,
and the Whos as the society we have created. We realise that society itself is just a construction and
therefore all the more vulnerable in its fluidity. It is only as rigid as our definitions of it and change is
inevitable. But the obstacles that Horton faces in preserving the Whos small world are a microcosm of
the obstacles that we face in our own lives in maintaining the lifestyle we have created or a belief we
sustain. So much so that while reading it, we depend on Horton to save the Whos but also save our own
suspended disbelief in the society we live in. This leads to the question, are we that far removed from
our young readers? Although children are pacified and delighted by the rhyme and joviality of the text,
they are aware of its fictional nature, yet we, as adults, determined to prove the significance of our
society, come to depend on Horton more than we rely on ourselves, to save not only the Whos, but our
flimsy foldable dream we call humanity.