Theodor Seuss Geisel

For my daughter’s birth, she was given a copy of the Dr. Seuss book Oh The Places You’ll Go. A thoughtful and thought provoking book and the last book written by Dr. Seuss. A book surprisingly, (to me) that was not even published until 1990.

His famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was based off of a personal experience he had with friends at an Ethiopian restaurant in Boston. Seuss had refused to eat the unusual cuisine, despite his friends’ insistence that it was good. After a while of refusal his wife convinced him that he was being rude and should at least try the food. After that Seuss declared that Ethiopian food was his very favorite, and frequented the same restaurant regularly until his death.

As I was raised on Dr. Seuss books, and have a four-year-old-daughter, I’ve read a lot of his books recently. But there is a disconnect between the common perception of what he represents and of the content of his cartoons.

Take, for instance, the following analysis:

• Mertle the Turtle: a cautionary tale against dictators.

• The Lorax contains an environmental message.

• The Sneetches is a plea for racial tolerance.

• Horton Hears a Who is a parable about the American Occupation of Japan.

• The Butter Battle Book pillories the Cold War and nuclear deterrence.

• Cat in the Hat's famous red-and-white-striped hat has a political predecessor in the top hat Uncle Sam wears in Dr. Seuss's wartime cartoons.

An interesting note about the origins of the Cat In The Hat: In May 1954, Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Accordingly, Seuss's publisher made up a list of 400 words he felt were important and asked Dr. Seuss to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words. Nine months later, Seuss, using 220 of the words given to him, completed The Cat in the Hat.