She was never suspicious about what was inside. She’d loved him from when he was inside the egg. She had hatched her egg with all her being. Sprout’s thoughts were jumbled, but she was anything but ashamed. However, Sprout doesn’t let the other animals’ insults affect her this time. “A ridiculous hen has made our kind the laughingstock of the barn.” Even the guard dog, who is intimidated by the rooster and his hen, taunts Sprout. “It’s a disgrace to the comb!” the rooster tells Sprout. As a result of this discovery, she endures further humiliation. Soon after the birth of Baby (as he is known in the novel’s earlier chapters), Sprout takes him back to the farm, where she learns that the chick is actually a duckling. In fact, before he meets a tragic end, he gives her advice on what to do with the hatchling. She also believes Straggler is under the mistaken impression that she laid the egg, but he really knows more about it than she realizes. The hen, of course, thinks this baby will be a chick. The mother never does, but when Straggler finds her, he agrees to stand guard while Sprout is brooding. One day, while wandering the fields, she finds this egg and decides to sit on it until the mother returns. Even though he isn’t able to convince the other animals to let Sprout stay on the farm, he is able to help her fulfill one wish: To sit on an egg and watch a baby hatch from it.

He is allowed to stay on the farm, but he keeps his distance from the other ducks. Like Sprout, Straggler is a misfit, a wild duck among domesticated ones. While in the open grave, she meets Straggler, a mallard duck who also lives on the farm. “Nobody wants you!”ĭespite the harsh reality that Sprout has to face outside the coop, she doesn’t have to face it alone. To make matters worse, after she narrowly escapes from a menacing weasel in an open grave, the other farmyard animals, led by an arrogant rooster, reject her. However, she soon discovers that her new freedom comes with a loss of comforts such as shelter and food. After refusing to lay any more eggs for the farmer who owns her, she becomes “culled” and released from her chicken coop.

Early in Sun-mi Hwang’s novel The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, the main character, a hen named Sprout, learns about sacrifice.

The hen who dreamed