Though it uses simple language, the story it tells is complex and nuanced in its depiction of someone going against their given role in society and facing danger and rejection as a result. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is in the vein of classic children’s books such as Charlotte’s Web and Animal Farm, but it has a spirit of its own. However, the order of the farm dictates that hens must stay in their coops, so Sprout faces a struggle if she is ever going to be a mother. Sprout is old and cannot lay eggs, and is in line for culling, but within her is a deep desire to hatch an egg, so she escapes the cull and sets out to get what she wants.
(Nov.Sun-Mi Hwang’s story concerns a hen who calls herself ‘Sprout’, after the shoots of leaves that signal the start of new life, who is kept in a coop on a farm. Spare but evocative line drawings by the Japanese artist Nomoco add to the subtle charm of this slim volume. The book explores the joys of parenthood and the sacrifices required to nurture the next generation, the healing bonds of friendship, and the tug-of-war between nature and nurture. His lifesaving friendship enables Sprout to achieve one of her dreams: she hatches an egg she discovers in a briar patch, at first unaware that her offspring is not a chick, but a duckling. Determined “to do something with her life,” Sprout escapes from her cage into the barnyard, but she’s shunned by all its denizens except another outsider like herself, a mallard duck called Straggler.
The hen encapsulates her longing in the name Sprout, which she gives to herself, signifying the fecundity of nature. The protagonist is a philosophically restless hen who yearns to raise a chick, but her eggs are collected daily by the farmer’s wife. This is the lesson of this simply told but absorbing fable, a two million–copy bestseller in South Korea, and a story that will appeal to readers of self-help. Yet it’s possible to achieve happiness, and to make a positive contribution to humanity, if one perseveres. The road of life is paved with hardships, even tragedy.
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