Overzealous Book Report: Blue Hat, Green Hat

This classic picture book examines themes such as conformity, happiness, and gender.

One can only guess why all these animals are together and getting dressed. The elephant, moose, and dog all wear clothing the way it’s intended. The turkey finds a way to mess it up every time.

Strikingly there are many colors but no pink. There is briefly purple but that’s as girly as the colors get. This in a sense breaks the fourth wall and acknowledges that men are often regarded as the default despite women being more numerous. The socks being purple is a symbol of how women in history have often had to do the less impressive sounding tasks such as darning socks.

At first the other animals don’t seem to notice that the turkey is doing it “wrong.” Perhaps they truly are so involved in getting dressed, a metaphor for the tasks of life, that they don’t see what’s happening right next to them.

The first few pages, the trio of competent animals are all there together alongside the turkey. None of them respond which is a clear case of the bystander effect. Each of them could be thinking someone else should do something, so no one does anything. They each have the comfort of fitting in with the group.

When the animals find themselves alone with the turkey they can’t pretend not to…