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Green Eggs and Ham
Author	Dr. Seuss
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's literature
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	1960
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
ISBN	9780394800165
OCLC Number	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 in 1960. As of 2001, according to Publishers Weekly, it was the fourth-bestselling English-language children's book (novel) of all time.^[1]

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 but 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^[2], 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.^[2][3] The bet came after Seuss completed The Cat in the Hat, which used 225 words.^[2]

The fifty words used are:^[2]

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 published in 1960 and became the fourth best selling English-language childrens' hardcover book of all time.^[1][4] 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.^[5][6]

Adaptations and tributes

The book has been translated into a number of languages including Latin (Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!).^[7]

In the early 1970s 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. ^[8]

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.

The story was part of 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. Similarly, an episode of Histeria! contained a sketch in which Loud Kiddington pesters George H.W. Bush into eating broccoli in response to his personal ban on it.

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.

In 2006, The Food Network created a recipe for green eggs and ham.^[9]

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. Muirhead ordered the egg destroyed as he stated in his judgment:^[10][11]

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!

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.^[12]

An episode of Animaniacs contains a storyline modeled after Green Eggs and Ham, instead referring to "gold eggs and 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."

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.

References