Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book and the Cold War Essay

Theodor Seuss Geisel, more famously known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, “was a writer... cartoonist [, and a political illustrator] who had published over 60 books” (Dr. Seuss Biography) in his lifetime and has influenced nearly every American that has ever learned how to read. With children stories that hold deeper insight than most would expect to find in children books to stories that are pure nonsensical like Green Eggs and Ham that came from a bet (Biography). Dr. Seuss’s literary elements in his seemingly innocent works hold deeper meaning behind them and often paralleling to the events that were happening during his lifetime, like his book Yertle the Turtle. Dr. Seuss’s life had lead him into becoming an influential person in many people’s

The Cat in The Hat Comes Back is an illustrated children’s book written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1958. This book is made for children aged three to eight who are just at the beginning of learning how to read. This book is the second of the two The Cat in The Hat books and it is full of silliness, messiness and despair on behalf of the narrator. However, some people try to analyse this children’s book as an allegory of the Cold War. In the following paper, I will show why some people might think of The Cat in The Hat Comes Back as a Cold War Allegory although Dr. Seuss never indicated anything about this theory.

The Cold War was a clash between the ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union, even though there was no actual fighting between them, it still had a drastic impact on the lives of people who were alive at the time. As a result of experiencing the Cold War some creators used it as influence for literary works. For instance, The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss and Over the Hedge directed By Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, reveal the political nature experienced by the opposing sides during the Cold War. Satirical devices in the forms of parody and exaggeration are used to further convey the message the creators want the audience to understand.

For thirty years, an iron curtain lay across Germany. This iron curtain was called the Berlin Wall, and it represented the divide between East and West Germany. It also represented the loss of East Germany’s freedom and democracy. The Berlin Wall separated families and friends. This resulted in children growing up without a father and wives losing all communication with their husbands. The Berlin Wall poorly affected many people and businesses, and caused an ugly dent in Germany’s history.

Born in 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, is perhaps one of the most beloved children’s authors of the twentieth century. Although he is most famous as an author of children’s books, Geisel was also a political cartoonist, advertisement designer, and film director. He used the power of imagination to produce unforgettable children’s books and helped solve the problem of illiteracy among America’s children. By using his experiences in life as a foundation for most of his books, Theodor Geisel was able to shape the character of many of his readers, as well as teach children subliminal messages through a unique writing style that incorporated various elements and techniques. Through a few of his books,

Throughout history, there have been numerous battles that ended in death and destruction but none have been as potentially disastrous as the Cold War which even now, is a favored topic in all kinds of literature. Dr. Suess' The Butter Battle Book shares many similarities with events and people from the Cold War and should be read by children so they can understand and learn from a story that grabs their attention.

• Countries in Eastern Europe (and the eastern half of Germany) fell under the control of the Communist rule of the U.S.S.R after World War II. Winston Churchill used the phrase Iron Curtain to describe the divide between the Capitalist West and Communist East.

As previously stated there are many similarities between the Cold war and Dr. Seuss’s Butter Battle Book. The biggest being that the Zooks and the Yooks clearly represent the Soviet Union and the United States. In the book the Zooks eat their bread with the butter side down, while the Yooks eat it with the butter side up. The contradictions between the two is a satirical representation of Russia who were communist and the United States who were anti communist. Each disliked the opposing side very much, due to the way they wanted to govern themselves; like the way the Zooks and Yooks disliked each other due to the way they wanted to eat their bread .

The Cold War was the longest war in which the United States has ever partaken and is the only war that involved little to no fighting. After researching the events, reading historical opinions, and listening to lectures in class, I have come to the realization that the war was just an exaggerated argument between two neighbors over which model fence, wood or metal, they would allow in their yards. One neighbor, President Truman, wanted Democracy, and the other

Geisel is thought to be one of the best children’s book authors. “For most people the thought of growing up in a world without Green Eggs and Ham, Grinches, and Cats in Hats is barely conceivable” (Levine 10). Children throughout the world have grown up with the wonderful books created by “Dr. Seuss”. “These odd creations occupy a special place in the earliest memories of children around the world” (Levine 10). He has been able to not only capture their minds but their hearts as well. Geisel’s colorful imagination, upbeat rhymes, and unique illustrations seem to have no limits. He has written books that range from simply humorous to impressively insightful. This has contributed greatly in him selling more than 200 million copies. To many “Dr. Seuss is by far the best-selling children’s author to date, and perhaps the most beloved” (Levine

The spread of communism led to the so-called Iron Curtain, named by Winston Churchill. It divided communist Eastern Europe from non-communist Western Europe.

The cold war made a significant change to Eastern Europe. After WWII the Soviet Union wanted to spread their ideologies of communism and in order for them to do that, they

Books would give an insight to how the government’s were handling the cold war. That is what Dr. Seuss did with his book called The Butter Battle Book. Dr. Seuss is known for using short phrases with lots of literary devices and doesn’t shy away from them to show how The Butter Battle Book is related to the cold war. Conflict development, imagery, irony, and onomatopoeia’s are all used in the Butter Battle Book to show how The Butter Battle Book is related to the cold war.

In Document D, a North Atlantic Treaty was signed, which states, if one country attacks the other, allies are there to defend and assist the country. The NATO and Warsaw Pact was created to help one another if any allied forces were attacked. Countries wanted other countries to be afraid to fight, so they would have to fight their allies. In Document E, a cartoon of Stalin and Truman is pictured playing chess, the pieces resembled strategies of the Cold War. Both sides had a decision and strategy to move or use each strategy or piece. The war was fought more mentally than physically, replicating the game of chess, a mental and strategy game. Which led to decision making in the war of which tactic to use. The U.S. and Soviet Union fought with the use of government, making the Cold War different than other

Add Quote? Some sort of attention getter. The beginning of the Cold War seemed inevitable following World War II as tensions in conflicting ideological systems only grew more hostile. What was once a “marriage of convenience” between Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union began to unravel due to the pressures of dealing with a postwar world. For historians, the debate as to how and why the Cold War started is contested as thousands of theories are offered to help explain it.