Stuck
- In Bartholomew's second post-King adult interaction in this whole oobleck scare, he has even more success. Another adult actually believes what he's got to say.
- The royal trumpeter tries to blow his trumpet to warn the town, but—you guessed it—the oobleck gets in the way.
- And despite Bartholomew's warnings, the trumpeter sticks his hand right up the trumpet and into the oobleck. Bad idea.
- How many times must Bartholomew warn these adults not to play with oobleck? They're gonna poke an eye out with that stuff…
- As always, Dr. Seuss does a superb job of ripping apart the superficial things in which adults take pride, and he does it in the gentlest of ways.
- Check out this line, for instance: "But all the royal trumpeter blew was a 'GLUGG!'" Seuss makes sure to use keep "royal" before trumpeter and maintain that official title, but he juxtaposes it next to this ridiculous sound and an over the top display of incompetence. Just like the oobleck, which sounds fancy to the King, the trumpeter's fancy front is built on a house of cards.
- And it only gets worse throughout the passage with the oobleck's "GLOING!" and the trumpeter getting his hand stuck in that instrument that earns him that fancy title.
- Once again, it's up to Bartholomew to save the day. This certainly wasn't in his job description.