Dr. Seuss Creativity Essay

Who would expect a children's book writer such as Dr. Seuss to have such a depressing background? Despite his character flaws, he found ways to express himself, his beliefs, and his desire to get both children and adults to think.

Himself

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel, on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He liked to express himself in many ways. He enjoyed humor, satire, drawing, poetry, and he wrote with his own unique style. Seuss did what he wanted most of the time, he rebelled, and he persevered.

Humor. Dr. Seuss liked being wacky and weird; that's why his stories are different and it's why they are good. He believed that he himself was an oddball and that it was just fine. He had said himself, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out? (Quotes)” It was this bizarre mind of his that made his creations that the readers found funny. One day he got annoyed of his friends talking about their children when he didn't have any so he made one up and bragged about her. Her name was

Chrysanthemum-Pearl and he even dedicated his second children's book to her and included her name on Christmas cards along with other fake (and sometimes unusual) kids names like Norval, Wally, Wickersham, Miggles, Boo-Boo, Thnud and more.
Creativity.

Seuss was a creative minded man, he had to be in order to generate such stories, and such characters as he did. Most people forget that Seuss was an artist, not just an author but an illustrator, he didn’t just come up with the famous stories and rhymes but also the iconic illustrations that were goofy, memorable and unique. He very much loved poetry, in fact, most of his work is written like poetry and he basically formed his own unique style with words that was like no other. He is known for is rhyming and his plays on words, if he can’t find an acceptable word to use he’ll generate a new word, there are many words that he just made up to ensure he had the right rhythm and rhyme. His rhythm contributed to his work greatly, according to Kerry Mallan, of Austria’s Queensland University of Technology the poetic meter that Seuss uses. "has the accented syllable following two unaccented ones, this creates a wonderful galloping rhythm, which is perfect for

humor."
` Character. Seuss went to Dartmouth College and became the editor in chief of their humor magazine with the title Jack-O-Lantern. One night, he and his friends at the college were caught drinking in their dorm room and that violated the Prohibition Law. After the incident, he was kicked off of the magazine staff, but that doesn’t mean he stopped contributing to it. He rebelled and was able to secretly continue adding to the magazine under the his middle name, “Seuss” which is where that started being his new alias instead of his actual name Theodor “Ted” Seuss Geisel. He then graduated Dartmouth (Which gave him an honorary PhD since he wasn’t an actual doctor) and kept the alias. His first book (written under the name Dr. Seuss) ever published was a book he came up with when he was on a boat and heard the thump, thump, thump of the engine. It was called “And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street” which was rejected over twenty-five times by publishers, but he persisted until his friend who had a job at a publishing company took a look at it. He saw himself in some of his characters, most importantly The Cat in the Hat and the Grinch as he said in Redbook magazine “I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noted a very Grinchish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! Something had gone wrong with Christmas, I realized, or more likely with me. So I wrote the story about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I’d lost.” (qtd. In Redbook magazine qtd. In Nel). His life was filled with hardships and character flaws, including the story of his first and second wife. Seuss met his first wife, Helen Palmer, at Oxford. He later dropped out of Oxford in 1927 and returned back to the United States with his wife. But sadly, Helen, whilst suffering through cancer and the emotional pain of Ted ‘s Affair with their close friend Audrey Stone Dimond, committed suicide by overdosing on October 23, 1967. He later got married to Audrey on June 21, 1968. It is the character flaws that lead way to hardships and it is the hardships that build character and change people.
Seuss’s Beliefs
Dr. Seuss expressed what he believed through his political cartoons about World War Two and all the problems caused by it and during it. He also had his opinion on equality in many different ways. Not only did he care about adult problems, but he really focussed on the importance of children and their education.
World War II. Dr. Seuss expresses his opinions with his own flair, this is very clear during the period of time that he made political cartoons for the PM Magazine and propaganda posters. During this time he made points on the Republican Party, Hitler, Racism, World War Two, and Pearl Harbor. He had a particular problem with the America First Committee and their spokesperson, Charles Augustus Lindbergh. The America First Committee wanted for America to not join the war in order to be spared of the costs that come with war and he wanted America to fight for the little man against Germany (which was odd at the time coming from a German-American). Seuss had many over exaggerated comics about Lindbergh, including some where Lindbergh had worked with Hitler, supported Hitler, was supported by Hitler, and arresting an American bird for being part-Jewish. There were also plenty of cartoons about the America First Committee without the mention of Lindbergh.
In one of Seuss’s political cartoons it featured a bird with Uncle Sam’s hat sitting upon his nest in a tree in a forest of trees that had been chopped down. The trees had names such as “Norway”, “Greece”, “France”,and “Poland”, (names of countries that had been invaded by Nazis during World War Two). There was a woodpecker with the swastika (or the Nazi symbol) on its back and a resemblance of Adolf Hitler that was in the middle of chopping down a tree named “England”. And the American bird says “ Ho hum! When he’s finished pecking down that last tree he’ll quite likely be tired”. This was one of his first political cartoons that he made for the liberal publication PM Magazine. It explained how America was just letting Hitler and the Nazis take over and not realizing that they could be next. Another cartoon depicts a woman, wearing a shirt that says “AMERICA FIRST” reading to two children a book titled “ADOLF the WOLF” and saying “...and the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones… But those were Foreign Children and it really didn’t matter.” This was yet another jab at the United States government for deciding not to help fight in World War Two. As Timothy Cook, a writer of the “Political Research Quarterly” in 1983, wrote that many of Seuss’s stories "present a distinctly negative aspect of government and authority." Within such tales as Yertle the Turtle and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (both of which are Dr. Seuss books), "Seuss shows political authority as potentially selfish and exploitative, thirsting for more power, heedless of the best interests of the community, both Baum (the writer of ‘The Wizard of Oz’) and Seuss, by the conclusions of their stories, appear to argue that government should be limited in its scope." They think that there is too much power given to our government and not enough power for the citizens of America.
He made cartoons on the American government being ostriches that are burying their heads in the sand, countless times, including one that featured Horton and Morton from one of his books. Another instance where his political cartoons crossed over with his books was with a cartoon that had a stack of turtles resembling the story of “Yertle the Turtle” which was also supposedly a reference to Hitler and his rise to power. In the story Yertle the Turtle is King of the Swamp but he wanted to be Taller so he ordered turtles that he could stand on so he could be taller. The turtle at the bottom complained and was told by Yertle, that he doesn’t matter, and Yertle wanted to be taller so he could see farther, because he was King of whatever he could see, so he asked for even more turtles until he fell and could see nothing but the mud, as a cartoon villain should have.
Equality. Seuss believed everybody was equal, no matter what race, gender, but more importantly age. He had numerous political cartoons depicting what was wrong with America and there were several about racial prejudice. It was holding America back as he represents in one of his cartoons that depicted Uncle Sam steering a plain tied to different heavy objects with labels such as, red tape, the great rubber puzzle, inflation, peanut politics, “talk against our allies”, 6th column press, our ham fishes, and racial prejudice. Once again, bringing up the topic of being different, he believed it to be okay to be different, even to say “You have to be ODD to be number ONE”. He liked being weird and goofy he had said that “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells”. People throughout history got to where they were by being there weird selves, like Johnny Depp who said “I was always fascinated by people who are considered completely normal, because I find them the weirdest of all” (Luna), John Lennon simply said “It’s weird not to be weird” (Luna) and even Martin Luther King had said “Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted” (Luna). Dr. Seuss is one of many who understand the importance of being different and this was a message that he tried to convey to children.
Children are important. Dr. Seuss wanted children to learn, be inspired, and to enjoy reading. As he wrote in an essay published in 1960, “children’s reading and children’s thinking are the rock-bottom base upon which this country will rise. Or not rise. In these days of tension and confusion, writers are beginning to realize that books for children have a greater potential for good or evil than any other form of literature on earth” (qtd. in Nel). This quote explains what so many others have also tried to explain, for instance, John F. Kennedy who said that “A child miseducated is a child lost”(qtd. in Sara) and Albert Einstein who said “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school”(qtd. in Sara) (Early Childhood) and Dr. Seuss wants to educate children. He wants to educate children, he tries to get them to want to read. Dr. Seuss was trying to create a new future for the world because children are our future.
Thinking solves problems
Dr. Seuss didn’t just want kids to read, but also think outside of the box and use their imaginations. But first, kids didn’t like reading, reading was boring, there was a serious lack of entertaining children’s books. While getting kids to read why not teach them something along the way like morals and inspiring messages of imagination? Somewhere along the line adults lost that.
Children need to want to read. Dr. Seuss’s goal became trying to inspire kids to read even though “Dr. Seuss did not start writing children’s books with the goal of helping children learn how to read, but he became America’s best-known reading teacher” (Nel). Up until the Dr. Seuss era, Childrens books were boring, children didn’t want to read, and Seuss saw a problem. So in order to solve this problem, he made his own rendition of “Dick and Jane” with the ever popular “Cat in the Hat” which depicts a boy and a girl who meet a crazy cat that teaches them about imagination and following rules. The story was a challenge given to him by his colleague, William Spaulding. He wanted Seuss to “Write me a story that first graders can’t put down!” and also maintain no more than 225 words, starting with a list of 348 words. He didn’t like having to use all actual words he became frustrated and almost quit. He put it this way, “I read the list three times and almost went out of my head. I said, I’ll read it once more and if I can find two words that rhyme, that’ll be the title of my book… . I found ‘cat’ and ‘hat’ and I said, The title will be ‘The Cat in the Hat” (qtd. In Nel). The story did its purpose and became popular and kids were reading the story and enjoying it. It was published in 1957 and had sold nearly 1,000,000 copies by 1961. In 4 years over one million people read his story and he did not fail to keep writing books that were interesting for children, including “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” that same year and a sequel to “The Cat and the Hat.”.
Morals in Dr. Seuss books. Seuss successfully taught children lessons and morals using books like “The Lorax”, “Yertle the Turtle”, Horton Hears a Who”, “Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose” and “Green Eggs and Ham”. In “The Lorax” can teach us about accomplishing goals or changing the world if someone wants to make a difference they need to care enough about the cause. According to the story, “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not” (“The Lorax” 70) which in the book refers to the rejuvenation of the forest that had been chopped down because this book can also give kids an idea of environmentalism and how to treat nature.
The story of “Yertle the Turtle” in particular can teach children about greed, discrimination, and what can happen if you are greedy and refuse to treat others kindly. Yertle, in the end fell off of his tower of turtles due to a small turtle named Mack at the bottom of the stack, he burped and that’s all it took to take down Yertle. In the book titled “Horton Hears a Who” an elephant can hear something no one else can (because of his ears) and the “thing” that he heard was a tiny planet on a speck on a clover a planet with tiny people who had to shout to be heard in order to save their own lives at which they only succeeded once the tiniest citizen shouted. Seuss points out how even the smallest of creatures can make a difference more than once and to young children this shows them that they are not to small to make a difference and that they matter.
“Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose” was the story of a moose who was kind enough to let a bug ride on his antlers for a short while, but he bug wanted to stay permanently and invited other creature to live on his antlers as well. Soon enough, this forced him to be kicked from his herd and almost killed because he never wanted to stop using proper etiquette with his “guests” he didn't want to tell them to get off even when they drilled holes in his antlers. This story can prove to kids that they can be nice to others who aren’t nice to them.
Trying new things is also a good lesson for young readers and “Green Eggs and Ham” (which he wrote on a bet that he couldn’t write a book with only fifty words) is a perfect story to get that point across. In the story we have two characters, one of them, Sam, is trying to get the other to try green eggs and ham but the other character refuses to try them. Throughout the story he refuses, and refuses until he tries them at the end and apparently likes green eggs and ham. These morals can teach kids how to be respectful, courteous, and overall decent human beings when they become adults and hopefully don’t lose their imaginations and lessons they learned as they grow up as most adults have. According to a New York Times book review, Green Eggs and Ham “mowed down the teacher-­approved, intellectually inert Dick-and-Jane drivel that sucked the life out of early education in the 1950s (Russo).
Adults are obsolete children. Children are the most important people to make a difference because all adults start as children and what they learn in their childhood is what shapes them. When Dr. Seuss had said that, “Adults are obsolete children” (Nel) he believes that it is ideal to be a kid, to have the imagination, the curiosity, and the innocence of a child. Kids are always being told to grow up by adults, each generation is judged by the previous ones, and it’s an endless cycle. For instance, previous generations judge millenials for their weird trends and slang, but that is how it has always been for each generation, because certain people grow up a certain way and it is different from another group, people judge people who are different. According to Tim Wolf of Middle Tennessee State University, there is a recurring theme within Dr. Seuss’s books: the need "to win the approval of a rejecting parent". In Dr. Seuss’s first book the story is told by a kid who has a big imagination and his told off by his father. Wolf notes “Visually, this large passage of verse looms over a small boy in the lower right corner, almost pushing him off the page, we might say that the parent wants to push the imagination out of (the boy's) head." Adults are in charge of kids and sometimes boss them around and that’s why Dr. Seuss’s books do well with children. He takes them on an adventure and writes to them as an equal instead of talking down to them.
Conclusion
Dr. Seuss found ways to be the humorous, creative guy he was, to show and voice his opinions and beliefs, and his deep desire to get both children and adults to think and read so we can develop as a society. Once again, Dr. Seuss wrote in an essay published in 1960, “children’s reading and children’s thinking are the rock-bottom base upon which this country will rise. Or not rise. In these days of tension and confusion, writers are beginning to realize that books for children have a greater potential for good or evil than any other form of literature on earth.” (qtd. in Nel) This is a quote that clearly defines his reason for writing what he wrote.
Unfortunately, Dr. Seuss passed away September 24, 1991, as a result of oral cancer. His last book, “What Pet Will I Get” was published after his death.
Dr. Seuss wanted children to want to read and he wanted them to understand social mores. He wanted to share his opinions about his government in political cartoons. He wanted to fix the broken education system of trying to get kids to read. He was a good example of someone who used creative ideas to solve problems.