Dr. Seuss and The Sneetches
When I was growing up, my mom would read me Dr Seuss books. As I grew older, I started to understand them better. I realized that the themes could be applied even though the books were over 60 years old. I ended up keeping a handful of Dr Seuss books from my childhood and The Sneetches was one of them.
When I was a freshman in high school, the teacher gave an end of the year assignment to create a poster showing one book every person should read over the summer. I choose The Sneetches. I still stick by my choice and reasons!
My reason was that there are only 831 words in the book. Every person can read 831 words in one sitting!
The moral of the story is something every person should be reminded of. Yes, we can all use a refresher! Sometimes we go through our lives without thinking much about the basic lessons we learned as a child. I find that there are two similar themes. First, it is not right to base your opinion on some by their outward appearance.
In the book some Sneetches have stars on the lit belly and some do not. The star belly Sneetches think they are better than everybody else and treat the non-star belly Sneetches terribly. Well, when a stranger comes into town with a magic machine to add stars to the bellies of non-star belly Sneetches, everybody lines up! Of course, this does not go over well with the star belly Sneetches! The same stranger comes back with a star REMOVING machine! Chaos ensues when the Sneeches can not make up their mind about the stars! In the end, the Sneeches realize that it does not matter who has stars and who does not. All Sneeches are equal and worthy.
This is a very simple example that shows that just because somebody has something you do not have, it does not mean that they are better than you and vise-versa. It is a lesson EVERY person should know.
Another lesson that can be learned from the Sneetches is that it is pointless to envy what somebody else looks like. Deep down, we are all the same no matter if we have brown hair, blonde hair or purple hair!
Who do I think should read this book?
Everybody! Parents, read it to you kids from a young age.
