# Horton hears a who allegory?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horton-hears-a-who-allegory/543204>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 14, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horton-hears-a-who-allegory/543204 "2010-06-14T22:02:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horton-hears-a-who-allegory/543204/1 "2010-06-14T22:02:08Z")

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According to Wiki (and Cracked), Horton hears a who was written to be an allegory on the US occupation of Japan. While I like the book, I am having a hard time to see any connection. Am I too dense?

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**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horton-hears-a-who-allegory/543204/2 "2010-06-15T01:24:03Z")

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“A person’s a person, no matter how small,” and as such are deserving of protection. Just as Horton the elephant protected the Whos by taking possession of the dust speck they lived on, in the postwar world, the U.S. protected the Japanese and their country by occupying it, and to an extentm with their presence, taking possession of it somewhat. Had the U.S. not have been present, it would likely have been a simple matter for Japan to have been taken over by any one of the enemies it had made – Korea, China, or the USSR for example (in effect, “being boiled” like the Wickersham Brothers, Vlad Vladikoff and the Sour Kangaroo (aka Jane) wanted to do with the dust speck), and if they had not taken it physically by occupying it, it may have been possible for Japan to have gone communist instead.

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**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horton-hears-a-who-allegory/543204/3 "2010-06-15T07:53:19Z")

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Which makes a lot more sense than a story about how big people should look after little people, or how little people can join together to make themselves heard, right?

[Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) is a humor site which also includes this gem: “The previous Horton book, Horton Hatches The Egg, was of course about the time when Eisenhower hatched an egg.”

Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anyone can edit.

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**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horton-hears-a-who-allegory/543204/4 "2010-06-15T15:18:37Z")

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Yes, but don’t miss out, both the Cracked article and possibly wikipedia are in response to the theory that HHaW was talking about Roe v. Wade – even though it was written decades before, and Suess himself repudiated the connection.

> **[The 5 Greatest Books With Psychotic Fanbases](https://www.cracked.com/article_18568_the-5-greatest-books-with-psychotic-fanbases.html)**
>
> Crazy fanbases aren't anything new. It's when crazy turns to psychotic that we regret these books were ever written.