The Powerful Life Of Dr. Seuss Geisel

The journey through an individuals life can be full of chaos and frightening events, while another may have it good. Some people do things in their life that are daring and dangerous, while others play the game very safe. Several people have trouble fitting in, while others are the life of the party. Take Theodor Seuss Geisel for example, also known by the name of Dr. Seuss, Geisel has been through several ups and downs throughout his lifetime. “If things start happening, don’t worry, don’t stew, just go right along and you’ll start happening too” (~Dr. Seuss). No matter how rough or how amazing Geisel's life got, he didn't brag nor pout about it, he just kept going with what was happening and everything turned out quite alright for him. Geisel

got a rare opportunity to help expand the knowledge of young minds through his highly equipped, mind building, children books. Geisel also accomplished many other things such as: political comic writer, film award winner, and was recognized for his artistic and creative abilities. Though Giesel had a well life, he did also have a few bumps in his road, tragedies that might have just haunted him for the rest of his life.
“With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street” (~Dr.

Seuss). Instead of going down a dead end path, use your mind to find the right way out. No other will be capable of making that decision for you, you must rely on your own knowledge and be confident in yourself to make sure you end up somewhere good. This is one lesson Geisel stressed throughout his stories, it was like a main idea he warped all his books around. Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, was smart about leaning in life lessons and advice throughout his work, he was trying to find the best in the children and wanted to help. Dr. Seuss even helped develop the young minds of children everywhere, using extended vocabulary and computing rhythm into his kid books. Dr. Seuss did not only use age appropriate vocabulary, he also used silly made up words such as; nerd, thnadners, zong, zummers, and many more! These words are known to improve a child's sense of creativity and convinces them to try and learn new actual words. The synthesis of both the rhythm and the new words test kids in a different way that other children books don’t. Dr. Seuss books makes the kids feel like their imagination can take them beyond past where they already are. Because of the different ways he inquires different forms of creativeness, children have been developed more socially and emotionally. When the children are discussing the story with one another or even cracking up about the foolish

words and rhythms, they are socially connecting with one another, creating friendly bonds. With Dr. Seuss’ books, little people are assisted with verbalizing and drawing stuff out of proportion. These make them feel as if they were more appreciated, helping raise their mini self esteem levels. His books are even useful for toddlers or little babies, they lay down a foundation for learning how to read. Reading Seuss books to lil youngins helps them unfold phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is a skill that identifies and manipulates units of oral language. This helps prepare a child for harder reading in the future and advances there literature levels. “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” (~Dr. Seuss). One major point that Dr. Seuss stressed in his writings was that it is okay to be different. Dr. Seuss encouraged diversity throughout his books. He specifically created his characters with weird traits and names just to make a point that sometimes being different is perfectly fine. In one of his well known books, “The Sneetches and Other Stories” Seuss entwines in lessons about tolerance and teaches children about diversity. In The Sneetches there are two different types of characters, ones with and ones without stars on their bellies. This relates to real life back in 1953, when it was published, and even now. How so? This is how… the Star-Bellied Sneetches are perceived as us white folks, as the Plain-Bellied Sneetches can be seen as them black fellows. This efficacious story gets children into a conversation about friendship and discrimination. The story talks about how the Star-Bellied Sneetches thought they were the best, like royalty, they were prejudice towards the other Sneetches. They even were rude to the little Sneetches with no stars, doing stuff like not letting them participate on their games and plainly ignoring them. How rude is that!! By publishing this book, Seuss got children and maybe even some adults to think about fairness and how in the end we're all the same, so why discriminate against someone if they look different than you! When reading and interpreting this passage, they are expected to connect it to their real life problems similar to what’s happening in the book, such as racism. Looking and realizing how much this story relates to their real life problems, children sometimes feel the need to take charge and responsibility, and tries to help put an end to at least some of the racism that occurs around their community.

Instead of sending the message that certain things are better than others, Seuss tries to help us see that in this world and in God’s eyes, everyone is equal. “A person’s a person no matter how small” (~Dr. Seuss). This quote has major value, whether you’re talking about actual size, or if you are meaning the way they look and how they fit in. In this case, we’re more focused on the way the look, and how they fit into a group. Now and days, how you connect with a group of people is important, now we have different types a groups were they base you of what you look like and what your worth to figure out if they want to associate with you or not. What Geisel was trying to point out, is that you should not just glance at someone and without speaking to them or giving them a chance, just toss them out like they’re some left over salad! Take time, get to know them, you never know, you two might possibly be soulmates, but you would never know if you throw them away based on what they do or do not have. What is trying to be said here, is give them a chance! “Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!” (~Dr. Seuss). Not only did he preach about diversity, and equality, he also taught young ones how to obtain

confidence to grow on their troubled problems. You shouldn’t let yours fears and wrongs control the way you continue on with things, you must show them who runs the show, and it’s not them. Think of it this way, your troubles only affect you if you let them, you’re problems are actually a phenomenon that was made up in your head. To get rid of your troubles, Seuss advises you give your troubles some trouble instead! “Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope” (~Dr. Seuss). Unlike the other quotes, this one isn't from one of his world renowned books, this came straight from him, not from a flimsy paper. Because this saying was published in a book, makes just a little more important and its depth in meaning is increased. This quote explains how fantasy in your life is important. Seuss strived to go back to this saying when creating any one of his wacky stories. He says it helps the reader get away to the dreamt up world that he brought to life, escaping reality for little at a time. Seuss has also said how using your imagination and daydreaming can bring help you pull your focus inward, opposed to outward. Geisel not only wrote inspiring books for children, he also accomplished a lot of his goals throughout his life.
Geisel wasn’t always an author for kids, he did so many other things too! He has won awards such as; Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Special, Regina Medal, Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards, Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, Caldecott Medal, and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. His first award that he won was the Caldecott Medal, in fact, Geisel won this medal 3 times, once in 1948, 1950, and 1951. This award is granted to the author with the best picture book for children published that year. He won the awards for his phenomenal work on the books; McElligot’s Pool(1948), Bartholomew and the Oobleck(1950), and If I Ran the Zoo(1950). Geisel was multi talented, he also received awards for filmmaking. He won a film award twice, once in 1978 for his work on Halloween is Grinch Night and again in 1982 for The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat. “While Paris was being occupied by the klanking tanks of the Nazis and I was listening on my radio, I found I could no longer keep my mind on drawing pictures of Horton the Elephant. I found myself drawing pictures of Lindbergh the Ostrich”(Dr. Seuss). After Geisel resigned from the war, he couldn't just stand around and watch what was happening around, That’s how seuss got into writing political comic strips for the paper. By making these comic strips, he not only got the people to read about it and have a good laugh, he also provided them with information about what was happening in their world. He made their problems visible so someone else could help step up and do something. His cartoons gave laughs about bad people around the world, such as Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini.he write about how they discriminate against jewish people or africans, just because back in their day that was completely legal and no one did anything to stop it. “Seuss’s sensitivity to social injustice stems from his adolescence, the period of his life that he considered the source of his creativity...His grandfather had emigrated from Germany in the nineteenth century and, during the First World War, young Ted Geisel was teased for being a German American ”(Seussville). One reason Geisel felt so strongly against all this war, racism, and prejudice content, is because he had to go through it just like them. As a child he was bullied for being German in America, or not looking German enough. He could just be trying to stop the past from repeating itself. In this time period being against racism meant something, and helped make differences.
That plain little turtle below in the stack,
That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack
Decided he’d taken enough. And he had.
And that plain little lad got a little bit mad
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.
He burped!
And his burp shook the throne of the king! (~Seuss)
Even in Seuss’s children books, he speaks out and sends messages about how all are important. Shaming others for their appearance, or background wont help anything but make you seem like a bigger jerk than you already are, harassing someone because they are a different color than you, or because they have a funny accent because of where they were born and raised, this stuff is not acceptable, and Geisel did all in his power to try and stop it! Dr. Seuss was also quite the artist and not just through his words. He expressed his art through his editorial comics which originated in the 1920’s. His fascinate viewpoint of the world helped his comics develop more quickly. Geisel created more than 400 cartoons, tons of advertisements, and too many editorials about the 2nd World War. Geisel got super artistic when constructing his unusual yet goofy child book characters. Dr. Seuss created every character, every line, everything in his books himself. “His ability to move a storyline ahead via illustrations filled with tension, movement, and color became a hallmark of his children’s literature…” (http://www.drseussart.com/illustration-art-description). His silly illustrations caught and dragged in the eyes of little humans, grabbing their attentions long enough to get them excited about reading and expanding their knowledge. One of his most jaw-dropping pieces of work is The Cat in the Hat. The cat in the hat became like a metaphor for Theodor Seuss Geisel, it was like Seuss was there, narrating his stories. With the Cat in the Hats help, he completed some of his best work with his descriptive imagination of human nature. Seuss’ cat in the cat work was so phenomenal that it became super rare and sold out almost entirely. “Pussy so good I say my own name during sex” (~Cardi B). This quote isn’t entirely about Seuss, or Cat in the Hat, but if you look deep enough you can find the connection between this quote and the cat. This quote is a metaphor for how cat in the hat had such an influence on every child around the globe, that he had motivation to keep going and keep educating children everywhere. Geisel had so much more great stuff happen to him too, and here are some fun facts that describe some of them. Geisel wrote under several different names, one of the being Dr. Seuss of course, but he also used Theo LeSieg, Rosetta Stone, and Theophrastus Seuss. Seuss’ first book was And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, before it was finally published, his first story was rejected 27 times by more than one publisher. The birth of his successful book Green Eggs and Ham was actually created off of a bet that said he couldn't write a book with only 50 different words. It took him over a year to write the short, yet astonishing Cat in the Hat. He published 44 picture books before he sadly passed in 1991. Geisels life was filled with heartfelt memorable events, but there were somethings that even the strongest people can't get past. Even successful people who have it all, may have too much… everyone has something that gets to them.
Through a person's life, many things happen, you could get invited to a party by someone you barely know and end up being the bestest of friends, you could find and marry the true love of your life, you could graduate at the top of your class and pursue all of your dreams and tackle anything that blocks your path, but every now and then, you can't break through the bad stuff, sometimes it happens at the worst of times and makes your whole world seem as if it is crumbling below you. Everyone has tragedies, everyone goes through different things, it's how you deal with them that matters. Dr. Seuss dealt with all his misfortunes quit well, he did not complain, nor fuss, he just compelled everything he was feeling into a family-friendly action and put it in his stories. Geisels most life-threatening act was when he decided to enlist himself for the 2nd World War. Imagine the trauma someone would be left with after experiencing something as brutal and soul crushing as that. To cope with everything that happened during that part of his life, he incorporated everything into little political comic strips that were put in the newspaper and shared throughout the public.
Ted was haunted by the war in Europe, and one evening in Manhattan he showed an editorial cartoon he had drawn to his friend Zinny Vanderlip Schoales, the brilliant, hard-drinking intellectual…. She had joined the patrician liberal Ralph Ingersoll when he launched the tabloid newspaper PM in New York with the backing of Marshall Field III. Zinny took Ted’s cartoon to Ingersoll and PM published it on January 30, 1941…
Publishing his little comics did not only take stress from off his shoulders, but it also kept the world informed about what was happening.