The Animal in the Wild in <em>Hwang Sun-mi’s The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly</em>

Abstract

Hwang Sun-mi’s The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly has become a contemporary classic children’s story in Korea since its original publication in 2000. Since then, the story has been translated and redesigned with new illustrations in almost thirty different countries (Y. Kim). The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly centers on a hen that raises a duckling as her “baby,” with the story drawing upon a rich reservoir of cultural associations between humans and nature in East Asian traditions. In this story, the hen leaves the human-dominated barnyard, based on profit, exploitation, and competition, for a reconnection with moral virtues in the natural world. By leaving the human-organized society, the hen Sprout realizes her name’s potential for vitality and growth. This paper explores cultural connections between the animal and nature in Hwang’s story within a Korean context, inviting comparisons between Western and Eastern environmental perspectives.