The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

Characters who are parents in The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly are entirely selfless, prioritizing the needs of their children over their own well-being. Straggler’s death in the opening chapters epitomizes this: He chooses to sacrifice himself to ensure the safety of his unhatched baby. He repels the weasel, who prefers stealth attacks, by dancing and quacking demonstratively throughout the night until the night before the egg is due to hatch, when he feigns sleep in the weasel’s path, offering himself as a sacrifice to the weasel; his plan is evident when he says to himself: “I’m okay. If he’s full he’ll be quiet for a while. It’s okay, as long as the egg hatches. I’m ready” (57). Straggler convinces himself that he’s ready to die if it fills the weasel’s belly. His “short, horrifying scream” (57) as the weasel breaks his neck emphasizes the tragedy of his painful death but also underscores Straggler’s incredible sacrifice for his duckling, whom he’ll never know.

Similarly, Sprout prioritizes Baby’s well-being over her own. When the day dawns after Sprout finds the egg that will hatch into Baby, Sprout reflects, “Everything was different from the day before” (43), illustrating the total shift in her priorities toward caring for the egg above all else. The choices she makes, gathering foliage to warm the egg and remaining near it at all times, further illustrate her commitment. Her dedication to Baby remains consistent throughout the novella. Her own decline contrasts with Baby’s increasing strength and confidence, illustrating how Sprout literally and metaphorically diminishes to allow Baby to grow and thrive, as if Baby directly takes the weight and strength that Sprout loses: “Sprout was thinner than ever. She ate only to stave off hunger and spent all her time running around looking for Greentop, so she’d gotten as small as a reed warbler” (106); meanwhile, “Greentop took flight powerfully” (123).

When Baby (now Greentop) grows up, Sprout selflessly advises him to fly away with the mallard ducks: “You should leave” (120). She places his happiness above her own, given that she would clearly prefer that he remain with her; as he flies away, her sobs reveal the extent of her grief at his departure: “She could let out only sobs. My baby is leaving me!” (133). The extent to which Baby’s existence shapes Sprout’s world is evident in her despondence when he flies away. She lets herself be taken by the one-eyed weasel: “No longer could she run away. She no longer had reason to” (134). Furthermore, in this moment, Sprout extends her selfless motherhood to include the weasel’s babies, who remind her of “the last egg she laid, the one with a soft shell that had shattered in the yard” (134). The weasel, too, is a parent who sacrifices everything for her children’s well-being. In realizing that the weasel is a desperate mother and the weasel cubs are children in need of sustenance, Sprout feels newfound sympathy for the weasel’s situation and chooses to sacrifice herself for her babies’ survival, further characterizing Sprout as selfless and caring as well as an existential thinker: “‘Go on, eat me,’ she urged. ‘Fill your babies’ bellies.’ She closed her eyes” (134).