the hen who dreamed she could fly - book review

written on: 171220, published: 180502

i'm a very emotional person when it comes to works of fiction or, words so powerful that they move one's heart. and this, was most definitely one of those books that once you're done, you just close your eyes and desperately need at least a moment to just take a breather and really reflect.

the hen who dreamed she could fly is a short novel written by Sun Mi-Hwang (항선미) in 2000, then translated into English 13 years later on November 26th.

it is the story of hen 

so i'll start with what really made me feel a special connection with the main character, Sprout. Sprout is an egg-laying hen and has been at the same exact farmhouse for over a year. correction, trapped in the same coop for over a year.

being that the coop was tilted forward, every time she laid an egg it would roll to the other side of a barrier ; separating them from their birth givers.

all her life, she just wanted to lay an egg, sit on it until it was ready for hatching, and raise it and watch it grow into a free spirit.

every day, she would watch the roosters, hens and ducks roam around the yard with ease, their little baby chicks or ducklings tagging along. her envy and longing to be out there with them grew by the day.

she just wanted to feel like she was a part of a community, she just wanted to be a mother.

i can relate with this because i know what it's like to have a strong desire to fit in, and want to have what everyone else had. 

Sprout did end up hatching an egg in the end, except it wasn't exactly a chick, nor was it hers. it was a duckling, which she found inside a briar patch growing on the skirt of a hill near by her farm house.

she named it Baby when it hatched, but after awhile it turned into Greentop, for the duck had started to become more and more masculine. kind of like it's father, a former friend who had sacrificed his life trying to protect Sprout and the baby from the hungry eyed weasel.

i love how the story develops, showing you every part and parcel of the struggles single mothers have to face each and every day of their lives while raising their kid/s.

what i don't like about it is the fact that it makes you come back to the reality of this world. even the title itself says that ; the hen who dreamed she could fly.

i guess that's why i prefer to read books with a little more fantasy in them ; they don't remind me of the depressing, harsh reality of what life is really like.

at the end of the day, Sprout was still just another hen. but what made her so different from the rest?

well, no one gave her a name, so she ended up naming herself.

the name Sprout originates from the sprouts of a plant. 

"a sprout grew into a leaf and embraced the wind and the sun before falling and rotting and turning into mulch for bringing fragrant flowers into bloom."

she believed that there was more meaning to her life than just laying eggs.

 that's what's so special about this book to me. 

she never lost hope, even though everyone told her,

"nobody wants you." "you're a disgrace to our barn."

"go back to the coop, where you belong. there's no room for you here."

in the end, she ended up living life to the fullest.

yes she was an egg-laying hen, but you can never find a better version of Sprout anywhere than Sprout herself.

she isn't the hen who dreamed she could fly, she is the hen who dreamed she could fly and made her dreams a reality.