When I was a child, I loved when my mother a”h would read The Cat in the Hat to me. I found it fascinating! Years later, while reading it as an adult, a few lines amid the silliness jumped out at me.
It’s fun to have fun
But you have to know how
Dr. Seuss was talking to me. As an adult, I had forgotten how to have fun.
Recently, another interpretation occurred to me. It’s fun to have fun, but we shouldn’t have fun at another person’s expense.
I’ve never heard anyone interpret those lines in a serious way, and I don’t know if Dr. Seuss meant anything meaningful by them, but that was the first time it occurred to me that there could be wisdom in a Dr. Seuss book.
And while I took note when Dr. Seuss tells us we must know how to have fun, there’s another profound line in The Cat in the Hat that I missed. It’s at the very end of the story.
In an essay titled “What Would You Do If Your Mother Asked You? A brief introduction to ethics,” philosophers Jacob Held and Eric Wilson write:
“…And there seems to be no overt moral message or quandary in this piece until we get to the end. The book ends with the children’s mother returning home and asking what they did all day. A question is then posed to the reader, ‘What would you do if your mother asked you?’ Would you lie? Mom will never find out…, and no one is harmed in the process. …But are there other factors that should be considered?” (from the book “Philosophy and Dr. Seuss”).
We adults who grew up on The Cat in the Hat have come to realize Theodor (without the “e”) Seuss Geisel, known throughout the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, wasn’t just a writer with an imagination who made up silly stories and painted silly pictures.
We now realize Dr. Seuss was a creative genius and brilliant rhymist, and that a number of his seemingly silly books are writings on serious social and moral issues. Yertle the Turtle is an allegory on government abusing its power, according to Wikipedia, specifically Hitler. The Sneetches is a story about prejudice and unfair social class distinction. Horton Hears a Who is about how every person counts. According to Wikipedia this book is about the Hiroshima bombing and the American post-war occupation of Japan. The Butter Battle Book is Seuss’s criticism of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the former Soviet Union, and The Lorax is an urgent call to protect the environment.
These books have us grappling with moral and philosophical dilemmas, and won Dr. Seuss scores of adult fans. In fact, his book Oh The Places You’ll Go is so full of wisdom for life, it’s become a popular graduation gift.
One of my favorite passages in this book is:
And when you’re alone there’s a very good chance
You’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
One of my favorite Dr. Seuss books is The Lorax. In this book, a character called the Once-ler, who lives in a deserted wasteland, tells his story to an unnamed child, about how this once beautiful area was ruined and his business shut down.
When the Once-ler came here, he says, it was a “glorious place” with green grass, a pond, clear skies, Swomee-Swans, Brown Bar-ba-loots [cute bear-like animals], Humming-Fish, and Truffula Trees.
Upon arrival, the Once-ler notices that the tufts of the Truffula Trees are made of soft material that he could make something from, and sell. He chops down a tree and knits something he calls a Thneed.