The stories we read as children long ago seemed to be just stories, but now have clear deeper meanings and various interpretations. In the story Horton Hatches the Egg, it is not only about an elephant sitting on an egg, but about parenthood and the right to be the parent to a child. There is a dispute between whether Horton should or should not be the parent of the egg, but he earned that right in the book. Other things in the book like the colors, rhythm, and shading all help to add to the tone.

The book begins with a bird named Mayzie solemnly sitting upon her egg in a tree, looking up into the sky longingly. She wants to take a vacation from watching her egg, so when she sees Horton the elephant walk by, she takes advantage of the situation and asks him to sit on her egg for a short while. Horton agrees to sit on it for the short time, and Mayzie sets off on her vacation. Horton figures out how to sit on the tree without cracking the egg, and suffers on the tree for days. Meanwhile Mayzie gets to her vacation spot on the beach and quickly decides never to come back to her egg. Through the harsh conditions of winter, Horton continued to sit on the egg, with only a phrase to get himself through it. "I meant what I said and I said what I meant . An elephant's faithful one hundred per cent!" Horton stays on the tree through the whole winter, and even when his friends come and make fun of him he stays on. Suddenly, three hunters come with guns and are about to shoot Horton. However, Horton stands up and refuses to give up or get off his egg so the hunters take him to try and sell an elephant on a tree. They put Horton and the tree onto a cart, and trek through mountains, jungles, and put him onto a boat to go to New York. There, the three men sell Horton to the circus. The unhappy Horton continued to sit on the egg, and one day Mayzie decides to stop by the circus. The instant Mayzie sees Horton the egg begins to crack. Initially Mayzie insisted on getting the egg back, but when a baby elephant with wings comes out Mayzie unhappily steps down. Finally, Horton and the baby elephant happily returned to where they came from.

The main argument drawn from this story is arguably whether or not Mayzie deserves the egg back at the end of the book. Some argue that because she laid the egg that she is the rightful parent, while others argue that because Horton took care and had raised the egg he would be the parent. This situation from the book has been quoted and used in court cases in recent years about whether parenthood is earned through biological connection, or through loving and raising a child. Two notable cases drawing from this book are In re Emily (2000) and In re Jerry P (2002).

In the story, I believe that Horton was the rightful parent to the egg. Horton was the one that stayed on the egg for fifty one weeks. "My egg!" shouted Horton. "My Egg! WHY, IT'S HATCHING!" (Seuss 42). In a startling event, Horton blurts out that his egg was hatching, so in his mind it was his egg. Mayzie however believed that the egg was still rightfully hers. "But it's MINE!" screamed the bird  "It's MY egg!" she sputtered. "You stole it from me!" (Seuss 45). I believe that parenthood is something that is earned, not just something based solely on biological connection. Mayzie had left the egg with no intention of returning, abandoning it and therefor giving up her right to be its parent.

Everything seems to come together in the end, when the egg finally hatches. "My goodness! My gracious!" they shouted. "MY WORD! It's something brand new! IT'S AN ELEPHANT BIRD!!" (Seuss 49). When the egg hatched, rather than being just a bird, it was a flying elephant bird. In the picture from the book, it burst from the egg with wide eyes, flying directly to Horton, which shows that it had chosen Horton as its real parent. This puts the argument of nature vs nurture into perspective. Although this is just a fictional children's story, when the egg comes out as a part elephant part bird, it shows how much nurturing a child can change them and have an effect on their life.

Along with the situation of rightful parenting in the story is a collection of morals and ethics to teach to children. One of the major morals is to not run away from your responsibilities, like Mayzie did. Because she ran away and didn't come back, she lost the privilege of being a parent to her egg, and ends up being heartbroken because of it. "I won't be gone ling, sir. I give you my word. I'll hurry right back. Why, I'll never be missed ." (Seuss 3). Horton on the other hand kept his promise no matter what happened, and ended up with the reward of being the parent to a baby elephant bird. 

Horton Hatches the Egg is a children's story, but it talks about many implications of adult life and parenthood. The idea of biological parenthood vs nurturing parenthood giving the right to be a parent is compared in the story, and I believe that it is the nurturing that makes someone the real parent. Horton turns out to not only be the nurturing parent to the egg, but also when it hatches to become an elephant bird, turns out to somehow be the biological elephant parent.

