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Horton Hears A Who The Reversal Of Roles
The story of Horton Hears A Who is really a reversal of roles as it happens in the world today. Look closely and deep into the book and you will see that what in real life is the man versus animal kingdom stand-off is the other way around in the jungle of Nool. The Whos in Whoville are the nonentities, the little, insignificant people who don't matter to anyone except Horton, who is different. The animals in the jungle are very much like humans in the real world with their human tendency to destroy what they don't understand.
Let's look at the Whos in Whoville first. Even their names are insignificant. They are happy and content in their world till one day, realization dawns that they are just a speck in a much larger scheme of things. This, however, does not faze them and they rally round and come together to rebuild and to ask for help when they feel threatened.
The animals in the jungle on the other hand, cannot stand even a speck taking away the attention of someone like Horton. So, they gang up - like people do in the social jungle and decide to teach Horton a lesson and all because his loving heart does not let him conform to their norms. Like the hard-to-find good people in the real world who march to the beat of a different drummer, Horton too finds that he is ridiculed and insulted but all he cares about is keeping the small people safe.
This is very like the small band of environmentalists who fight against the world to save all that is precious in nature. Horton too has a heart and mind larger than the immediate issues. He is open to life beyond his immediate fellowmen, unlike the other animals.
The Whos who are more like people to look at and live the way humans do, are really at the mercy of the larger and more powerful animals in the jungle of Nool simply because of their size. The larger animals decide where they should live and whether they should live at all, or be boiled in Beezle-Nut juice. Of course all this is in very skeptical, considering the animals doubt their very existence. Or rather, deny it.
Books like these are a great way to bring out this reversal of roles - like the fables of old did. Movies enhance this reversal. So many animation films today portray animals who are so human. Some lovable, some not. Well, in this one, just one is lovable and all the other animals quite horrible till the very end. The only question to be asked at the end is: If in this reversal of roles, animals can change at the end and be accepting, when will it happen in the real world?