A hen who is kept to lay eggs in a farm’s chicken coop, Sprout is the story’s protagonist. The exposition immediately characterizes Sprout as unconventional: While the other hens peck contentedly at their feed and focus only on things within the coop, Sprout symbolically looks outside of the coop instead, wishing she could be free and be a mother. Unlike the other egg-laying hens, who are nameless and indistinguishable from one another, she names herself Sprout, inspired by the life cycle of the acacia tree in the yard, further establishing her individuality and unconventional approach to life. She embodies one of the book’s main themes, The Search for Freedom and Self-Determination.

Sprout continues to illustrate this theme as a mother to Baby, a duckling. The other farm animals mock and ridicule her for hatching a duckling, but her love for Baby overshadows any concern about the judgments of others. The manner in which Sprout walks away from the other farm animals into the dawn, Baby in tow, characterizes her determination: “She would never return. Looking straight ahead, stiffening her claws,

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