Green eggs and ham

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I took it literally and couldn't work out they got the eggs green .

That was the first book I read by myself when I was 5 1/2 years old.

It didn't matter whether the ham and eggs were green. I hated both ham and eggs back then!

I just wanted the guy to quit bugging him about the eggs and ham. He said he didn't like them. Lay off him already!

The message of the story obviously was to not assume you don't like something until you try it first.

And he *did* like green eggs and ham, when he actually tried them.

Hearing people being negative about Dr. Seuss just reminds me how people take everything too seriously these days.

I got the message and he did end up liking the eggs and ham. However, I always figured that it was entirely possible that the character would try green eggs and ham on his own at some future point. I thought if people badgered and pestered others as a matter of course about anything and everything like Sam-I-Am did, that the world would be a maddening place.

I thought it was just the eggs that were green, and that the ham wasn't green (it just went with the green eggs).

This reminds me of this historical incident . ,

The book: haven't read it, but I suspect it contains a moral that I don't agree with, like "do as you're told, you'll thank them for it one day." I also suspect it's nothing like as good as Alice In Wonderland, which lampoons jumped-up adult authority and half-baked moral indoctrination.

The recipe: don't want to eat meat, the preservatives in ham, or food colouring, because they sound unhealthy, and the whole thing looks like it entails a load of unnecessary work. I like straightforward egg on toast and have my own recipe for making it with the minimum of fuss and bother. I don't need my food to be strangely coloured. I presume it's a kids' recipe. If kids are too picky to eat regular food, they're probably not being kept hungry enough. And I question the morality of encouraging impressionable kids to prepare and eat junk food such as green eggs and ham, particularly as meat has such a high carbon footprint.

I see both the book and the recipe are American.

Do kids really pick up on these metaphors?

My mom read this book a lot when I was little and all I saw was Sam trying to get the other animal to eat the green eggs and ham. All I liked then were pictures and words meant nothing to me. All stories were like that for me.

I think an adult would need to explain the story to the child.

It's an interesting question. I guess if it works, it wouldn't be on the conscious level. Certainly a lot of folks are concerned that children's stories shape their attitudes and perceptions of normality. Disney for example has been criticised a lot for portraying girls in stereotyped gender roles, subservient to men etc., and there's similar alarm about Barbie dolls. I've not seen any studies that directly correlate the imagery with the supposed result. All I know is that psychologists, advertisers and politicians seem to think that the power of suggestion is strong, and I see a lot of suggestion in stories.

When I was 5 1/2 years old, I thought of it as Sam not liking green eggs and ham.....then him liking them later on.

I felt like it was sort of like my parents making me eat things I didn't like to eat. But that I'll like them if I tried them.

Childrens's stories are effective in passing on values precisely because they work unconsciously. The child doesn't consciously get the meaning. But exposure to multiple stories illustrating the same values over and again would presumably cause the child to absorb the value by osmosis.

Maybe it would depend on the kid. I was always hyperanalytical in this regard. Couldn't read people, missed the most basic references/jokes in movies etc., but could analyze the heck out of the theoretical underpinnings from an early age. My daughter is 7 and has done this from age 4 or 5, but like me is lost in the real world.

We read it for my class in kindergarten and got to try the meal!

I dont eat ham, but the green eggs were tasty

Personally I always thought it was about how kids dont like to eat green things (usually veggies)
People usually say it encourages perseverance and tells kids not to discount anything before you try it

I didn't hear this story as a child, but I probably would have gotten the meaning, as I did with other similar children's books.

Yeah, and unfortunately some people are that pushy I can't stand pushyness. They should just let others like or dislike in peace, same as they no doubt want