Literature / I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew

"Young fellow, what has happened to you
Has happened to me and to other folks, too.
So I'll tell you what I have decided to do…
I'm off to the City of Solla Sollew
On the banks of the beautiful River Wah-Hoo,
Where they never have troubles! At least, very few.
It's not very far.
And my camel is strong.
He'll get us there fast.
So hop on! Come along!"

—The Wubble chap

I Had Trouble In Getting To Solla Sollew is a story written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss that was first published in 1965. It's a The Hero's Journey story, chronicling an unnamed protagonist's Trauma Conga Line as he searches for Utopia, and learns that Grass is Greener.

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This book provides examples of:

• Action Survivor: The protagonist either endures or flees the troubles that beset him on his journey.
• All for Nothing: The protagonist finds the only way into Solla Sollew is unreachable by a small creature who slaps the doorman's key every time he tries to open the door. After this, he realizes that going to Boola Boo Ball is not worth any more troubles.
• An Aesop:
  • Don't run away from your problems. Chances are, you'll just end up making them worse.
  • Also, borrowed from Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?, there's always a good chance that someone out there has worse troubles than you.
• Arc Words: "Solla Sollew, on the banks of the beautiful River Wah-Hoo, where they never have troubles! At least, very few."
• Badass Boast: The closing lines.
  But I've bought a big bat.
  I'm all ready, you see.
  Now my troubles are going
  To have troubles with me!
• Bittersweet Ending: The protagonist still has troubles, the camel still has to spend at least twenty weeks in bed to recover from his illness, and Solla Sollew still has their problem with the Slippard, but at least the protagonist has a bat to fight off the pests, and the doorman is headed for a city without any troubles whatsoever (maybe).
• Boring Return Journey: The narrative jumps from outside Solla Sollew straight back to the Valley of Vung. Maybe the Happy Way Bus was running again?
• Brains and Brawn: The Wubble chap invokes this in the name of "teamwork". Conveniently, this allows him to sit back and bark out orders while the hero does all the heavy work.
  Wubble chap: This is called teamwork. I furnish the brains. / You furnish the muscles, the aches and the pains. / I'll pick the best roads, tell you just where to go / And we'll find a good doctor more quickly, you know.
• Butt Biter: The Quilligan Quail does this to the hero, who is so intently watching out for rocks in his path that he doesn't see the bird coming.
• Cats Are Mean: The Perilous Poozer of Pompelmoose Pass, which has the appearance of a lion. What's worse is that there are more of them.
• Citadel City: Solla Sollew is one. Deconstructed, as it means that a single problem with the single door in and out is enough to turn the city on its head, since there's superstition around killing the little bastard.
• Conscription: The main character is drafted to join the war against the Perilous Poozer of Pompelmoose Pass.
  General Genghis Kahn Schmitz: There's a war going on! And it's time that you knew / Every lad in this land has his duty to do.
• Cue the Rain: How could walking over 100 miles to Solla Sollew be worse? If it were raining.
• Darker and Edgier: This was the start of Seuss' more somber stories, although it's still fairly light. The ending is especially unusual: Instead of a happy ending in Solla Sollew like most children's books would have, the protagonist discovers that the door is locked and the doorman cannot unlock it because of a Key Slapping Slippard in the door. It even considers the possibility of killing the Slippard, noticeably averting Never Say "Die" in the process. (Granted, that's rejected, since it's considered seriously bad luck.) At the end the hero concludes Violence Really Is the Answer and returns home to face his problems with a bat.
• Didn't Think This Through: At the beginning, the narrator trips over a rock and thinks he will stay out of trouble forever if he keeps looking forward. This doesn't stop a quail from biting his tail from behind, a mosquito-like creature from stinging his neck from above, or a burrowing creature from biting his toe from below.
• Feathered Fiend: The Quilligan Quail bites the hero from behind for no stated reason.
• Foreshadowing: The refrain about Solla Sollew says that they have no troubles or "at least, very few." This gives an early hint that Solla Sollew is not the perfect place it's said to be.
• Here We Go Again!: Averted. Rather than risk another arduous, fruitless venture, the hero passes on the trip to Boola Boo Ball and returns home instead.
• The Hero's Journey: The story takes this form, beginning with the main character running away from his problems, and ends with him growing up and facing them. It chronicles his departure, journey, and return.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Wubble driver is an unusual case. We see his "heart of gold" side first, when he invites the hero to join him on his journey. Only when the going gets tough do we learn he isn't quite as selfless as he initially appeared, being very bossy and work-shy.
• Journey to Find Oneself: At the end of the book, the main character grows up and stops running away from his problems.
• Miles Gloriosus: General Genghis Kahn Schmitz and his soldiers. Once they learn that they face a pack of Poozers instead of one, retreating is understandable. Leaving their young conscript behind, less so.
• No Name Given: The story is told in first person, and the main character's name is never given.
• The Promised Land: The entire book is spent on a quest for Solla Sollew, which is made out to be a Utopia. It gets deconstructed once he finally arrives.
• Saved to Enslave: The protagonist is saved by drowning by General Genghis Kahn Schmitz who then conscripts him into his army to fight the Perilous Poozer of Pompelmoose Pass.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The story is full of people making decisions to abruptly leave rather than face their problems.
  • The story begins when the protagonist decides to leave home in this fashion.
  • Implied that the Wubble chap left home in a similar fashion.
  • The chap who leaves his home to avoid the Midwinter Jicker.
  • General Genghis Kahn Schmitz when he sees the Poozers.
  • The gatekeeper of Solla Sollew at the end.
• Trauma Conga Line: The whole book is one long series of random woes that befall the main character.
• Unconventional Food Usage: The protagonist dreams of sleeping on marshmallow-stuffed pillows.
• War Is Glorious: General Genghis Kahn Schmitz thinks so for one page before it gets deconstructed.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Solla Sollew is not the city of no troubles that it was claimed to be… but Boola Boo Ball is. Subverted, in that the main character stops there, and doesn't go on to Boola Boo Ball.

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