“My trouble was I had a mind
But I couldn’t make it up.”
Hunches in Bunches might, if one wish to push a comparison beyond its tipping point, be referred to as the Hamlet of the Seuss canon. It is right there on the first page. A boy sits in a chair, faithful canine by his side, asking the reader whether they—like him—ever get a case of the fidgets from not being entirely sure what course to take. He has trouble. Oh boy, does this boy have trouble. Like the Melancholy Dane, he cannot make up his mind.
“You’re not going ANYwhere!
There is homework to be done, Bub!
Sit your pants down on that chair!”
Metaphor becomes literal in this book. The boy is wracked by doubt about which path to take. Before you know it, a Happy Hunch is whispering advice like a shoulder angel that he really has only one choice on a beautiful day like today and that it is be outside. Immediately, a Real Tough Hunch wheels around the corner, reminding him that he has no business heading outside when what he should be doing is saying inside and finishing up that homework. The boy had a hunch about which decision to make and it personified into reality. The problem is that the boy has lots of hunches and most of them are all in conflict with each other.
“Do you think it might be helpful
if you went to the bathroom, dear?”
Sour Hunch chips away at the boy’s guilt that his bicycle is rusting and needs oiling. Later, Spookish Hunch gives advice that even the boy is sophisticated enough to recognize as useless. Most of these living hunches are fairly well defined by their advice, but one of the most memorable has to be Very Odd Hunch. What other name could one possibly give to a hunch whose advice is to take care of bladder needs above all else? Even Hamlet had to take out time from debating whether to be or not to take a bathroom break, right?
“One of me
could never do it.
And quite suddenly I knew…
To get a job like that done
would take more of me
…like two!”
So many hunches running around with so many different forms of advice, most of them good and worth following. What’s one simple boy to do? There is not enough time to follow all those hunches and get everything done. The right thing to do would be to prioritize what most needs to be done. But this is a young boy and he comes up with what might actually be a more effective solution. Unfortunately, it is also every inefficient for obvious reasons. Of course, this is metaphorical as well. In the literal reality of the situation, the boy is actually doing what is recommended. He prioritizes and finally decides to follow just one of the hunches. That of Munch Hunch who recommends six hot dogs for lunch
