Green Eggs and Ham

Green Eggs and Ham

File:Greenegg.gif
Author	Dr. Seuss
Language	English
Genre	Children's literature
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	August 12, 1960 (renewed 1988)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
ISBN	9780394800165
OCLC	184476
Preceded by	Happy Birthday to You!
Followed by	One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Green Eggs and Ham is a best-selling and critically acclaimed book by Dr. Seuss, first published on August 13th, 1960. As of 2001, according to Publishers Weekly, it is the fourth-bestselling English-language children's book (novel) of all time.

Green Eggs in Ham is also a stroy that James Skinner and Michael Adams analyzed to death, and brought sorrow upon all the children of the world.

Plot

The story is told wholly through images and rhyming dialogue. There is no descriptive narrative or analysis.

There are two main characters: The first is unnamed, the second is named Sam-I-Am, or simply Sam. Throughout the book, Sam tries to encourage the first unnamed character to try green eggs and ham, though he meets with little success. The unnamed character refuses to taste the dish, insisting that he would not like it. Sam then goes through an assortment of locations (house, car, tree, train, box, boat) and dining partners (fox, goat, mouse) trying to persuade the unnamed character to eat.

The conclusion of the tale occurs when the unnamed character, standing in shallow water after a boat sinks, surrounded by various people and beasts, finally gives in and tries the green eggs and ham on the condition that Sam leaves him alone. Upon doing so, he realizes that he does, in fact, like green eggs and ham, and would eat them in all the places and with all the dining partners suggested throughout the book. The story closes with the character thanking Sam-I-am for his persistence.

Lexicon

Green Eggs and Ham is one of Seuss's "Beginner Books", written in a very simple vocabulary for beginning readers. The vocabulary of the text consists of just fifty different words, of which 49 are monosyllabic (the one exception being "anywhere"). It averages 5.7 words per sentence and 1.02 syllables per word, giving it an exceptionally low Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level of −1.3.

Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, wagered $50 that Seuss could not write a book using only fifty different words. The bet came after Seuss completed The Cat in the Hat, which used 225 words.

The fifty words used are:

a

am

and

anywhere

are

be

boat

box

car

could

dark

do

eat

eggs

fox

goat

good

green

ham

here

house

I

if

in

let

like

may

me

mouse

not

on

or

rain

Sam

say

see

so

thank

that

the

them

there

they

train

tree

try

will

with

would

you

Forty-six of the 50 words (all but car, Sam, train, and try) are of Germanic origin.

The tale is in the form of a cumulative tale, with a list of circumstances which gradually increases as the story progresses. Thus, one of Sam's friend's refusals goes:

I could not, would not, in a house.

I would not, could not, with a mouse.

I would not eat them with a fox.

I would not eat them in a box.

I would not eat them here or there.

I would not eat them anywhere.

I would not eat green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

The meter of Green Eggs and Ham is a combination of trochaic and iambic tetrameter; for details, see Dr. Seuss's meters.

Drawings

Like many of Seuss' characters, Sam and his friend are ambiguous animals; they are furry with large snouts, but stand upright, can speak, and have human facial expressions.

Sam's friend wears a tall black hat that imitates his body language: it startles, cringes, rises up indignant, etc. in synchrony with its owner.

The book also includes a number of Seuss's characteristic elaborate machines: there is a complex platter-presenting device, large artificial hands on poles to illustrate Here and There, a vehicle with a mysteriously-appearing door from which a goat emerges, and a rickety railroad viaduct.

Reception

Green Eggs and Ham was first published on 12 August 1960 and became the fourth best selling English-language children's hardcover book of all time. In 1999, the National Education Association conducted an online survey of children and teachers, seeking the 100 most popular children's books. On both the children's and the teachers' lists, Green Eggs and Ham was ranked third, just above another Dr. Seuss book, The Cat in the Hat.

Adaptations and tributes

The book has been translated into a number of languages including Latin (Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!).

In 1973, the story was part of a TV special, Dr. Seuss on the Loose; the segment followed much of the original story, with added scenes such as the fox being pursued by horse and hounds or the neighbor reading the menu on the train before Sam comes up to him and suggests, yet again, green eggs and ham. Both Sam and the neighbor were voiced by Paul Winchell; in fact, when the neighbor ultimately tries the green eggs and ham, he lets out the distinctive sound of joy which can be identifided also as the signature shout of Tigger in the Winnie-the-Pooh featurettes. This also includes a choir singing songs.

A 1982 episode of St. Elsewhere has the adult son of one of the main characters, Dr. Craig, dying in a car crash. At the end of the episode, a grieving Craig recalls that when the son was a young child he would read Green Eggs and Ham to him, and recites the final words of the book.

A computer game based on the book was published in 1996 by Brøderbund, as part of its Living Books series.

Hip-hop group 3rd Bass referenced the book in their 1991 hit, "Pop Goes the Weasel", from their second album Derelicts of Dialect (goes for mine I goes for mine/find the prime that won't eat the green eggs and swine)

In 1992, the band Moxy Früvous recorded a satirical version of the tale, with the same name and general theme, though certain lyrics are decidedly less child-friendly. The song is found on their self-titled indie recording Moxy Früvous.

In the Dinosaurs episode "Terrible Twos", the babysitter reads to Baby Sinclair Blue Eggs and Toast, a parody of Green Eggs and Ham.

Sam-I-am appears in the children's program The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.

A 1997 episode ("Cookie Crisis") of the Cartoon Network series Johnny Bravo featured a very similar plot to that of Green Eggs and Ham, and was written entirely in a Seussian rhyming style.

To memorialize Dr. Seuss upon his death, Saturday Night Live invited the Reverend Jesse Jackson to read Green Eggs and Ham during a Weekend Update segment.

The book was turned into the curtain call song for the 2000 Broadway musical Seussical; the song incorporates numerous lines from the book and is sung by the full company.

The 2001 movie I Am Sam is named after the quotation in the book. In the movie, a little girl is read the book.

In 2006, The Food Network created a recipe for green eggs and ham.

On September 21, 2007, U.S. District Court Judge James Muirhead used Green Eggs and Ham in his court ruling after receiving an egg in the mail from prisoner Charles Jay Wolff whowas protesting the prison diet. Muirhead ordered the egg destroyed as he stated in his judgment:

I do not like eggs in the file.

I do not like them in any style.

I will not take them fried or boiled.

I will not take them poached or broiled.

I will not take them soft or scrambled,

Despite an argument well-rambled.

No fan I am of the egg at hand.

Destroy that egg! Today! Today!

Today I say!

Without delay!

A 1992 musical/theatrical piece by Rob Kapilow and published by G. Schirmer has been performed numerous times, normally for a live interactive audience of young people. It was the first musical setting of the story and is scored for soprano and boy soprano soloists, and small orchestra.

The 1995 film Green Eggs and Hamlet retells the story of Hamlet entirely in rhyming couplets, mimicking the style and meter of Green Eggs and Ham.

An episode of Animaniacs based on the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk concludes with a Green Eggs and Ham parody, instead referring to "Gold Eggs and Meat", the gold eggs coming from a goose and a slab of canned meat. A giant, speaking like the character Ralph, refuses the gold eggs and meat. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot play the role of Sam-I-Am. The catch phrase is "I does not like gold eggs and meat. It's you who I would like to eat." Like Seuss' story, the trio suggests absurd locations such as the San Andreas Fault and dining partners such as Godzilla and Rodan.

In Sam and Max: Freelance Police, one episode revolves around Sam and Max trying to get their favorite food, Glazed McGluffins, brought back to the market. When they convince the food critic (Kent Standit, a pun on "Can't Stand It") to bring back the McGluffins, he goes slightly insane, and starts making rhymes and calls Sam "Sam-I-Am", an obvious nod to the book.

In an episode of Dextor's Lab Dextor finds a book named Green Bacon and Eggs, which is a book he found in the science section of the library (which he got mad because it is not about science). At the end he got so mad to find it there again he yelled that he hated the book, then threw it at a shelf which knocked over all the books.

In The Never War, the third book in The Pendragon Adventure, the characters go to a territory set in Earth's distant future, where books only exist as digital files. The only remaining hard copy book is a copy of Green Eggs and Ham, kept in a special glass display case.

An episode of Histeria! contained a segment where Loud Kiddington tries to persuade George Herbert Walker Bush to eat broccoli (in response to his personal ban on it), the dialogue exchanged was very similar to the book.

In a comic parody of Spider-Man called Spider-Ham, where all Marvel characters are animals, Hulk is called Green Ham (and Eggs), in reference to the book.

In the iCarly episode "iPilot", Sam refers herself to Sam-I-Am, a reference to the character of the same name.

A SpongeBob SquarePants episode, entitled "Just One Bite", is very similar to the book, with SpongeBob as Sam-I-am, Squidward as the picky man, and the krabby patty as the green eggs and ham.

Al Bundy in "Married With Children" incorporates Dr. Seuss into his feelings about his wife Peggy.

I've seen her from the front, I've seen her from the back.

I've seen her in a chair, I've seen her in a sack.

I've seen her stand, I've seen her crouch.

I've seen her on her stupid couch.

I do not like her in the mall, I do not like her in the hall.

I do not like her in my life, I do not like my big red wife

In the Glee episode Duets, Sam introduces himself to the Glee Club by saying, "I'm Sam. Sam I am. And I don't like green eggs and ham".