The Shrinking of Treehorn Literary Elements

Illustrated children’s story

An upper-middle-class home and an elementary school in an unidentified location at some point in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s.

The third-person narrator describes events through the perspective of Treehorn, an elementary school-age boy.

The narrative is delivered in a deadpan tone of purposely understated emotional response to the events. The mood throughout is reflective of Treehorn’s psychological reaction to his sudden shrinkage rather than anyone else’s reaction and that mood is dignified stoicism.

Protagonist: Treehorn. Antagonist: primarily Treehorn’s parents, to a lesser extent Treehorn’s principal and teacher, and to a minor extent, Treehorn’s “friend” Moshie.

The entire story is about the conflict between the normal course of the maturation process in which kids grow bigger as they age and Treehorn’s sudden reversal of this evolutionary fact in which he has started to grow smaller.

The climax of the story is the revelation that the cause of Treehorn’s sudden shrinkage is related to game piece movement on a board game.

The segment of the story explaining Treehorn’s hobby of sending away for cereal box-top offers foreshadows the revelation that the board game responsible for his getting smaller was one of those very prizes he sent away for.

When Treehorn watches TV, he shifts his attention to what his parents are talking about during commercial breaks unless what they are talking about is boring. When his mom and dad start talking about whether he is purposely shrinking just to be different, their conversation is cut short by the narrator “Treehorn started listening to the commercial.”

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Ironically, the visual imagery of Treehorn in the illustrations accompanying the text does not seem to portray any change in his height. He appears to remain the same size throughout even as the text situates him as getting smaller with each passing day.

The principal’s litany of instructions to Treehorn would be paradoxical even if the principal hadn’t been alone in his office at the time: “Please check here on this form the reason you to see him. That will save a tie. Be sure to put your name down, too. That will save time. And write clearly. That will save time.”

Part of the point of the story is parallel construction in which each of Treehorn’s interactions with a new character includes a stated repetition of his condition such as “I’m shrinking,” or “I’m getting smaller.

When Treehorn’s teacher says “I’m afraid you’ll have to go to the Principal’s office, Treehorn,” the specific use of “office” is a metonym for being sent to see the Principal himself as a punishment.

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