User:The wub/The Very Hungry Caterpillar

''A gathering of nonsense from the article on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. See also this old version''

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (ISBN 0-399-22690-7) is a children's book written by Eric Carle and originally published in 1969. It has proven to be highly popular and has been praised for its use of easy-to-read words which makes it good for teaching young children to read. The story has been translated into over 50 languages and, as of 2005, a copy is sold roughly every 57 seconds. It was featured on Sesame Street in the early 1990s.

The book contains 225 words and large, colourful illustrations. It follows a caterpillar as it munches its way through a variety of edibles such as ice cream, salami, watermelon and a lollipop before it finally pupates and emerges as a butterfly. The story teaches the life cycle of a butterfly, counting to 5, the names of the days of the week, and about food. Various interpretations have been placed upon it - for example, it is seen as a transformation story in Cambodia and an anti-capitalist work in the former East Germany.

The original title of the book was to have been A Week with Willi Worm, featuring a bookworm named Willi. However, Carle's editor advised that a green worm would not make a very likable protagonist. There are rumours of the film rights having been sold for £1 million.

George W. Bush listed the book among his favorite books from when he was growing up in a 1999 survey conducted by Pizza Hut, which caused some controversy among media commentators since Bush was twenty-three when the book was first published. Bush has also chosen the book to read to elementary school classes. 

Day 1
The main character is established. The hungry caterpillar eats a single red apple, possibly signifying loss of faith in the Socialist ideal.

Day 2
The caterpillar eats 2 green pears. This is thought to represent the rise to power of Stalin, and the betrayal of Trotsky.

In an alternate reading (favoured at Harvard) the catepillar's first steps towards puberty are here recorded. The pears, of course, symbolise female breasts, and the catepillar's desire to Oedipally consume the mother, threatened by her lack of phallus. All that is left is a scattering of seeds, but these, however, will grow into yet more pears (breasts), thus the overwhelming threat of a matriarchal state persists. (President Bush is said to not approve of this particular reading!)

Day 3
The caterpillar eats 3 plums. Carle said in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live - during a feature marking the 30th anniversary of the books publication - that the plums represented the distorted masculinity of both Hitler and Mussolini in the 1940's. Day 3 is considered by many to be the weakest in the series.

Day 4
The caterpillar eats 4 red strawberries. Ripe, ripe strawberries! Considered by many to be the finest by far of the inter-related vignettes which comprise the overall work, Day 4 charts TVHC's difficult mid-period, in which he dabbles in LSD (tabs having often depicted strawberries), and then spends a brief period engaged in the counter-cultural movement. Such clear allusions to 1960's San Francisco cannot be denied - the catepillar emerges from the shadow of McCarthyism and has his own 'summer of love'. Before, that is, the trauma that is Day 5...

Day 5
The caterpillar eats 5 whole oranges.

Day 6
On this day, the caterpillar devours its way through many, many different foods including; chocolate cake, ice-cream, a pickle, swiss cheese, salami, a lollipop, a cherry pie, a single sausage, a cupcake and a whole watermelon.

Day 7
The caterpillar eats a single leaf. This has often been considered a metaphor for the dangers of Communist aggression during the Cold War, particularly the Communist takeover of small, defenseless countries, here represented as the single leaf, viciously devoured by the very hungry Communist caterpillar.

Final chapter
The caterpillar cocoons itself and comes out as a beautiful butterfly. The hungry caterpillar is hungry no more - neither is it a caterpillar.

Controversy
Some analysts note that there is a strong anti-African central theme to the novel, culminating in the suggestion that the Africans (i.e. the caterpillar) should just eat twigs and leaves and stop compounding the world's problems. This conrtoversy has sparked much backlash among parents who have read the story, unsuspectingly, to their children. Several lawsuits are currently pending. There have also been some claims that reading the book out loud backwards produces a satanic incatation, but due to the various pronounciations of some words, this point is debatable.