2. So, Why Am I Talking About This?
Two words: This guy:
3. That Kid Loves Dr. Seuss!
Which Got Me Thinking…
• So many stories seemed to be more
than just stories.
• Could they (GASP!) be trying to teach
kids stuff about society and life in
general?
• If so, what are the lessons?
• Why teach kids these things?
4. And My Most Burning
Question:
Am I the only one who thinks Dr.
Seuss leans towards political
messaging in some of his stories?
5. Here’s What I Found!
• I was not alone! Dr. Seuss actually spent years
working as a political cartoonist!
• Dr. Seuss published 4 children’s books before
leaving to work for a magazine in New York called
PM.
• He was afraid that America was going to be drawn
into the wars in Europe and Asia, and felt that
America’s isolationist policies were detrimental.
• Dr. Seuss had experienced discrimination first
hand! When he was in college, many people had
believed him to be Jewish, and were discriminatory
toward him as a result.
6. Dr. Seuss’s Work at PM
• “I had no great causes or interest in social issues
until Hitler.”
• Dr. Seuss was sharply critical of American
isolationist policies and Anti-Semitic rhetoric.
• According to one poll, 80% of Americans were
opposed to going to war with Germany. Dr. Seuss
was not one of those people, and wanted to push
others to see that war with Germany was
inevitable
• Dr. Seuss wrote over 400 cartoons for PM in less
than 2 years
7. “While Paris was being occupied by the klanking tanks
of the Nazis and I was listening on my radio, I found I
could no longer keep my mind on drawing pictures of
Horton the Elephant. I found myself drawing pictures
of Lindbergh the Ostrich.” –Dr. Seuss
8.
9.
10.
11. After the War, Dr. Seuss Went Back To
Writing Children’s Books
• “Too many writers have only contempt and
condescension for children, which is why they
give them degrading corn about bunnies.” –Dr.
Seuss
• Prior to the war, his writings had been more
fun in their messages, if they had morals at all.
• The war strengthened his ideologies, and he
began to include them in his books.
12.
13.
14. “One story is a hilarious vignette about a
mother who named all of her 23 sons
Dave. The other three are parables on
prejudice, stubborness, and fear of the
unknown…”
-Joan Beck, The Chicago Sunday Tribune
15. The Sneetches
• Inspired by Dr. Seuss’s opposition to Anti-
Semitism
• An allegory about racism
• Dr. Seuss almost scrapped it because he was
afraid he would be perceived as racist himself
• “And, really, it's sort of a terrible shame, For
except for those stars, every Sneetch is the
same.”
16.
17. The Lorax!
• Dr. Seuss describes it best: “The reason I wrote
the Lorax is that I had read so many dull things on
conservation. Everything was either full of
statistics and dull or preachy and dull. I got mad
at the namby-pamby stuff I was reading. It’s one
of the few things I ever set out to do that was
straight propaganda.”
• Not just a clever tale with an environmental
message, it has other messages too!
• It warns against greed and rampant
consumerism.
18.
19. Butter Battle Book!
• Dr. Seuss once described it as “an echo of my
days as a political cartoonist.”
• A critique of the nuclear arms race
• More specifically, Ronald Reagan. Dr. Seuss
was not fond of his rhetoric
• “I’m not anti-military, just anti-crazy.”
• Panned by many critics for exposing children
to a frightening subject matter
20. Literacy as a Political Tool?
Yes!
• During the Cold War, there was a huge push to
reform beginning reader’s books
• There was a huge push for American children to
be smarter and better educated than Soviet
children.
• Declining literacy in the U.S. was blamed on
boring reading primers
22. So, This Guy Calls Dr. Seuss, and
Says, Fix This.
• Dr. Seuss was given a list of 225 words that it
was expected young children learning how to
read should know.
• He didn’t know what to do.
• He decided the first two words that rhymed
would be the title…..
24. And Now, a Brief Rundown of Some
Other Favorites and Lessons That Can
be Learned From Them
25. Hitler is bad. This
may seem simplistic,
but Dr. Seuss
completely had Hitler
in mind when writing
Yertle. Yertle wanted
to be king of
everything he saw
and didn’t care about
those around him in
his quest for power.
26. Don’t Cut Yourself
Off From New
Experiences Just
Because it’s
Different Than
What You’re Used
To, Using Only 50
Different Words
29. Life is an Amazing
Adventure.
Sometimes it’s
Hard, But it’s
Totally Worth it
and You Will Do
Awesome Things
30. Some Other Interesting Tidbits I’ve
Found
• The first book one in 4 children ever receive is a
Dr. Seuss book
• Dr. Seuss isn’t as universally popular and huge
abroad as he is in the U.S. Apparently, his very
American English style of writing just isn’t as
popular with British English speakers.
• Dr. Seuss won 2 Academy Awards for best
documentary for films adapted from propaganda
films he made while enlisted in the military
31. In Parting, Here’s a Few Words of
Wisdom From the Good Dr. Himself:
• “I don’t think my book is going to change
society, but I’m naïve enough to believe that
society will be changed by examination of
ideas, through books and the press, and that
information can prove to be greater than the
dissemination of stupidity. I think that can
happen.”
