Children's books, despite their seemingly naive plots, have deeper meanings that stem from various interpretations. In Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hatches the Egg," the story follows an elephant sitting on an egg but evolves into the elephant's right to be the parent to a child. The conflict of whether Horton should or should not be the parent of the egg explores the boundaries of parenthood in the short story.  All of the illustrations accompanying the story have a strong use of color and shading, initially seen only as images, but after analysis, are a tool in conveying meaning to the reader.  

The story begins with a bird, Mayzie, sitting upon her egg in a tree, looking up into the sky. She yearns for a vacation from watching her egg, so when she sees Horton, an elephant, walk by, she takes advantage of the situation and asks him to sit on her egg for a short while. Horton agrees to help 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 vacations on the beach and quickly decides never to return to her egg. Through the harsh conditions of winter, Horton continued to sit on the egg, encouraging himself with. "I meant what I said and I said what I meant . An elephant's faithful one hundred per cent!" (Seuss 21). Horton stays on the tree throughout the winter, even when his friends come and make fun of him. Suddenly, three hunters come with guns and are about to shoot Horton. Horton then stands up and refuses to get off his egg, so the hunters capture him and attempt to sell him. 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. Just as Mayzie sees Horton, the egg begins to crack. Mayzie initially insisted on getting the egg back, but when a baby elephant with wings hatches from the egg Mayzie unhappily steps down. Finally, Horton and the baby elephant happily return to where they came from.

The conflict of interest is whether or not Mayzie deserves the egg back at the end of the story. One could argue that, because she laid the egg, she is the rightful parent. But one could also argue that because Horton took raised the egg, he is the true parent. This situation from the story has been quoted and used in court cases in recent years regarding whether parenthood is earned through biological connection, or through the actual raising of the child. Two major court cases that quoted "Horton Hatches the Egg" includes In re Emily (2000) and In re Jerry P (2002). Both of these cases involved the biological father of a child having the "right to be the parent to the child". They quote Dr. Seuss as they argued for custody of the child, showing how relevant the story is today. Horton was the rightful parent to the hatched egg in all regards. Horton stayed on the egg for fifty one weeks while Mayzie lounged around at the beach with no intention to return. The connection between Horton and the egg becomes apparent when he says, "My egg!" shouted Horton. "My Egg! WHY, IT'S HATCHING!" (Seuss 42). Mayzie, however, believed that the egg was still rightfully hers when she says, "But it's MINE!" screamed the bird  "It's MY egg!" she sputtered. "You stole it from me!" (Seuss 45). Parenthood is earned, not based solely on biological connection. Mayzie left the egg with no intention of returning, abandoning it and thus giving up her right to parenthood.

The illustrations in the book are, naturally, intended for children. With the only colors being orange, green, black, and white, it is easy to focus on the main events on the page. The background in most of the pictures is simple green or white, with little variations thus drawing the reader in with the more detailed and well shaded illustrations. Note how when Mayzie is taking her vacation on the sunny beach, there is bright color and a lighter tone, but when it is raining and dreary, particularly after Mayzie loses the egg to Horton, the illustrations become darker in pigment. The shading and darkness help set the scene of the picture, giving the illustrations sad or angry tones when appropriate.

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, showing how Horton is in fact the rightful parent. In the dark bottom corner of the picture you could see Mayzie looking angry and defeated. This puts the argument of nature vs nurture into perspective. Despite the fictional genre, the identity of the baby, part elephant part bird, shows how much nurturing a child can 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.

