The hen lady's escape from the chicken farm - Chap 1

In "The Hen Escaped the Coop," there are three types of hens. The first type is confined in an iron cage, well-fed and lays eggs without ever brooding them, living a thoughtless existence. The second type lives a content life with roosters and chicks but is always afraid that someone will disrupt this life. The remaining type broods eggs, nurturing the hope of birthing chicks and ultimately fulfills this desire. Among the many hens, only Mam La holds this aspiration. Mam La is the protagonist of this story.

The protagonist. Quite a significant word, isn't it? Does anyone in this world dislike being the protagonist? However, one must think carefully about what being a protagonist means. It's not just singers or performers on stage, watched by many, who are protagonists. Rather, true protagonists are those who, regardless of recognition or praise, live diligently and bravely according to their desires. That is Mam La.

Living in a henhouse, where you eat as much as you are given and lay eggs regularly, might seem comfortable, right? But Mam La believes that isn't the life of a hen. Being born a hen, she feels obligated to live true to a hen's nature—this is Mam La's vow. Hence, she decides to leave the henhouse—a place of sufficiency.

Mam La wishes to live a life raising chicks with a rooster like other hens in the garden. However, this is an unattainable dream. That life was never meant for Mam La from the start. Despite feeling aggrieved, what isn't hers isn't meant to be hers. Despite this, Mam La does not give up. She finds another path and decides to leave the garden to pursue it.

Thus, Mam La becomes the protagonist of her own life. This is no ordinary feat. She endures hunger, cold, loneliness from being ostracized by other animals, and repeatedly faces death threats from Mrs. Weasel. Despite such a harsh life, it seems Mam La gains nothing. She wanders homeless, brooding over eggs that aren't hers—duck eggs, raising ducks to maturity, until Blue Head and the flock eventually leave her. Old, emaciated, bald, and terribly ugly, Mam La is finally caught and eaten by Mrs. Weasel, who had been lurking for a long time.

What is that? What kind of protagonist is that? Do you think so? If you do, then quietly compare. What do the caged hens think and how do they live? What about the hens living in the garden? And the hens like Mam La who leave the garden? Think about human life in this way. People living like caged hens, like hens in the garden, or like Mam La... There are many fates in this world. Think about how you are living and how you want to live.

That's it. "The Hen Escaped the Coop" is not just a simple story about a peculiar hen raising a wild duckling. It is a story that poses the question of who we are, how we should live, and seeks answers to that question.

The most apparent aspect is the numerous small stories related to eating and being eaten. This theme transcends the mere act of filling one’s stomach, extending into matters of life and death. However, the narratives of eating and living – whether good or bad, being eaten – are often not clearly defined and continue to be complexly intertwined. For example, the Wild Duck is caught and eaten by Mrs. Weasel, but this death allows Mam La and Blue Head to survive safely. Mam La dies, and the young weasels tear and eat her flesh, leaving her feeling as though she has laid her final egg. Consider also the scene where Mam La catches and eats a dragonfly. She does not want to eat the dragonfly with its long belly and large eyes, but she must in order to survive. Thus, after reading this story, one gains a deeper understanding of nature's harsh cycle of life and death, where the eater and the eaten are inextricably linked.

Moreover, an interesting point is the change in Mam La's living environment. From the henhouse to the garden, from the garden to the reed field, and finally to the sky. Each move from a confined space to an increasingly open one marks a gain in what she desires, becoming freer and stronger, though the threat of death relentlessly follows. Naturally, achieving dreams always comes at a cost.

Regardless of where Mam La lives, her existence is always on the edge between danger and solitude, with biting cold winds and rain splashing on her, not a consistently safe refuge. However, Mam La “endures without a word of complaint.” On the contrary, having seen the extremes of the world, and because she managed to protect Blue Head, she deliberately sought out that boundary. When a desire takes root in such harsh conditions and blossoms, it is all the more beautiful, isn’t it?

Silently struggling, with the name Mam La gave herself, nurturing a child that looks nothing like her with boundless love, and then letting her child fly away, Mam La eventually breaks into the wind and soars across a "blindingly bright blue sky" with "large and beautiful wings." Could the hens in the henhouse and the garden ever achieve something like this? Probably not.