Is it possible that Dr Suess was a man who wanted children to agree with his political opinions so he decided to write books about them? Similar to many of the other posts about "The Giving Tree" and its hidden messages I decided to look into other children's literature books for their hidden messages. What I came across was how political Dr Seuss books really are. Most of us grew up reading a variety of Dr Seuss books because they were simple, colorful stories that rhymed. But was he trying to give young children some kind of subliminal message about the world and its issues. Take a look at this article and see what you think. The one that sticks out to me the most is the idea of connecting "Horton Hears A Who!" to the political issue of abortion. Even if this is not the message he was trying to portrayal, the book still tries to make the argument that every person in this world matters. What is even more interesting about that story is how an anti-abortion groups took a line from the story to use as a slogan. Even though some people have pointed out that we should not always try to dissect a story and find all of its hidden messages, you have to question some of these authors of children's literature on what their books intentions are. Is it possible that "Horton Hears A Who!" is just a story about a community of people living on a flower that needs to be saved by an elephant, yes. But as we saw in the last class maybe what the author was really trying to do is give young children a heads up on certain issues, even political ones. So when we were younger and wanted to curl up on the couch and read an enjoyable story with our parents and show off our reading abilites, maybe what we were really doing is learning some very basic political science concepts. As you read these books with your students or children it will be interesting to see if any of them are able to pick up on what these books are trying to say. Like we said in class just because kids may be young and we feel as though they do not understand what some of these books are trying to say, you never know.
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5 comments:
Thanks so much for the mention. Rosemary
You bring up an interesting point about Dr. Suess and his subliminal message. I don't know if I'm trying to be in denial about his writings but just because there is one quote that can be put into a different light doesn't mean that's the idea of the whole story. To quote him, the book states "A person's a person, no matter how small"
I think a lot of people look for things to connect with an idea or political theme. You can "discover" a lot of things in literature if you look hard enough, or better yet you can come up with issues if you look hard enough. I'm not sure what Dr. Suess was really trying to get across with his Horton Hears A Who, but I don't think every children s book needs to be dissected in order to come up with a negative theme. But you brought up an interesting topic Ryan!
This topic is of great interset to me because as a pro-life believer, I have become extremely familiar with the message behind "Horton Hears a Who." In the past I have gone to the Roe vs. Wade march in Washington D.C. and have seen signs and t-shirts with quotes from this children's book, especially the quote "A person's a person, no matter how small."
I do not think that children are fully capable of picking up on certain messages behind texts, so this is where the parent or adult comes into the picture. The process of reading to children is an extremely hands-on activity and the book often allows for discussion and further interaction with the child. Books are meant to be read and processed and in the case of children, it is our responsibilty to decide if we want to explain the lessons deep within the books to them. I do not think many children are capable of reading "Horton Hears a Who" and understanding that Horton's protecting his spec from individuals who believe nothing exists, is a metaphor for the idea of abortion. A child, however, may read the book and walk away with the lesson that everyone matters, no matter their size or shape, which is a much easier concept to grasp at a young age.
I do know that Dr. Seuss did a lot of his work after World War II (a very sensitive time for our country) so it is no surpirse that such strong political issues can be found hidden in his books. I think it is also important to point out why Dr. Seuss may have used children's books to talk about more serious issues. Dr. Seuss may have been channeling some of his political frustrations into children's literature in order to make the topics easier to talk about through a more colorful and sing-song manner. Seuss took very touchy subjects and presented them in a differnt light so that children could read and interpret the issues in their own way (afterall, there is no real other way to explain some political ideas to children the way we hear them through the news or through activists and politicians).
I found your post to be especially interesting. Even at my age, I would have never noticed the connected between “Horton Hears A Who” and Dr. Seuss having a political stance against abortion. I can see the connection once you have explained it, and that’s why I find this post so very intriguing. How many Dr. Seuss books have hidden messages that go unnoticed? After all Dr. Seuss books are some of the most popular books read by children. This article: http://listverse.com/2007/12/05/top-15-dr-seuss-books/
also talks about hidden meanings in Dr. Seuss books. One of the books that I found most interesting was “Yertle the Turtle.” In this book, Yertle, the king of the pond, orders all of the other turtles to stack themselves on top of one another so that he can see all of the land that he rules over. The turtles below Yertle are suffering, and the turtle at the bottom of the pile states that those below should have rights too. The story ends with the bottom turtle burping and the entire stack falling to the ground. The end of the book states that the turtles are finally free, and that maybe most creatures should be free. This story is known to imply Dr. Seuss’ view toward fascism and Nazis. Yertle is Hitler, and the Dr. Seuss wants to see the fall of the Nazis, ultimately the fall of Hitler. I would have never seen this connection naturally. I understand the moral of the story, that everyone deserves rights. But I would have never known that this was really discussing Dr. Seuss’ political views. It is interesting to discover that many famous children’s books have hidden meanings.
This is a very interesting post and as I think about I can agree that Dr. Suess did have a purpose in his readings. I sumhow wonder if kids can pick up on these messages if true. Granted this could be just a theory you picked up but it could be true, you never know. I know as a young child reading Dr. Suess i never really looked at his books that way. I saw them as fun reads with lots of ryhming and colorful pictures. I also loved the funny characters in his books. But i never really saw a subliminal message in them. I think that is just something adults can look at when carefully disecting a book of his. But a very interesting take on children's stories. You never know if your favorite children's book could have a political meaning to it. Very interesting.
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