A storybook, a song, a play, a cartoon, and a couple films. Around Christmastime, one cannot avoid running into a green, grumpy Grinch. He is everywhere. He decorates the halls in the stores. Frightened children take pictures with him. He is sung about on the radio, and he pops up on the television. He is grumpy, sinky, stank, stunk. You get the picture. But where did he come from? What can we learn from him? Let us take a journey to a tiny, microscopic town called Who-ville and find out.
Dr. Seuss
“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”-Dr. Seuss
The man who is behind this simple, classic Christmas tale is none other than the famous Dr. Seuss. Born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts (United States). Dr. Suess was his pen name as a lighthearted joke of his unfinished doctorate degree. No, he is not a “real” doctor.
-Graduated from Dartmouth College (B.A.) in 1925. He did some postgraduate studies at Lincoln College, Oxford, and Sorbonne. He soon found himself working for Life, Vanity Fair and other publications as an illustrator and humorist. He was successful in advertising, specifically ads for Flit Insect Repellent, whose characters would live on later in his books.
-He wrote his first children’s book, And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street published in 1937 after being rejected by nearly 30 publishers.
-His first adult book, The Seven Lady Godivas (1939) was not that successful and so he focused on children’s books. In 1940 he published Horton Hatches an Egg. In this book, he begins to introduce the world to his whimsical characters and creative wordplay.
-During World War II Geisel served in the U.S. Army where he was assigned to the documentary division. Here he wrote the documentary, Your Job in Germany, later remade as the Academy Award winning Hitler Lives (1945). Other documentaries include Design for Death (1947) and Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950-cartoon) which won an Academy Award.
-In the late 1940s he returned to children’s books. After he founded Beginner Books, Inc. a division of Random House, he wrote several books for beginner readers such as Green Eggs and Ham (1930) and Hop on Pop (1963).
-His work includes other television specials and films, which he has won awards for. He also won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his contribution to education and children’s literature.
Geisel’s most popular children stories feature over the top characters, funny wordplay, and real-life lessons. In Horton Hears a Who! (1954), we are taught the lesson of human rights and the value of all individuals. “A person’s a person, no matter how small”. The Lorax (1971) introduced a character who speaks for the beautiful Truffula Trees, a tale of caution against destroying the environment. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” In 1984, he teaches children the moral issues surrounding war in The Butter Battle Book. Of course, there is also the lesson of Christmas spirit, which we will learn from The Grinch later.
In 1995, the University of California, San Diego library was named the “Geisel Library” in his honor. In early 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that they will no longer publish or license a handful of books due to the way they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
Geisel died on September 24, 1991, at his home in La Jolla, California, aged 87. It is estimated that he sold more than 600 million books (and counting). Indeed, Dr. Suess and his tales continue to live on! His stories transport us to magical worlds where strange and outrageous characters teach us lessons while simultaneously dangerously balancing on treetops and walls. In these worlds children are entertained by a cat in a red and white striped hat and find that it is appropriate to eat green eggs and ham, well, just about anywhere. In these worlds it is okay to be vulnerable, make mistakes, and most importantly, to just be yourself.
He teaches us life lessons while reminding us to have fun, and in the end, not to take the English language so seriously.
P.S. My favorite Dr. Seuss books are The Lorax and Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Sources:
Dr. Seuss | Biography, Books, Characters, Movies, & Facts | Britannica
Dr. Seuss Quotes (Author of Green Eggs and Ham) (goodreads.com)
The Tale
“How The Grinch Stole Christmas” (1957) by Dr. Seuss is the storybook that started it all. This forty-ish page picture book introduces us to The Grinch. He lives in a cave just north of a village called Who-ville. Who-ville, if you are unfamiliar is a very pleasant place to live and all the Whos love Christmas. But the Grinch does not. It was more than just an aversion or dislike for Christmas, he hated it! He hated the noise the children made when playing with their new toys, he hated the feast they shared with each other, and most of all, he hated the singing. The tale does not explain why he hates Christmas, but it alludes that reason might be his heart was two sizes too small.
One Christmas, after fifty -three miserable years, the Grinch had had enough, and decided the best way to stop Christmas was to steal it. He dresses up like Saint Nick with a red hat and coat. He also calls his poor dog, Max, straps some horns on him, and makes him push a sleigh as a pretend reindeer. The tale goes into detail as he steals all the stockings, presents, decorations and even the food out of the ice box, even the Who pudding and Who hash! At one point he gets interrupted by a tiny Who named Cindy-Lou. He manages to convince her to go back to bed after he lies to her regarding him stealing their Christmas tree.
The Grinch is successful after stealing all the Christmas items from each house in Who-ville. At dawn he makes his way back up the mountain to his cave awaiting the cries of sadness from below.
But alas, when the Whos wake up, they do not cry and scream out at their stolen Christmas. Instead, the Grinch hears…singing! He goes down to investigate, and there “every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small Was singing! Without presents at all!”
And this is where the lesson of the tale is learned. The Grinch stood there puzzled. How could Christmas still come without all the THINGS? “How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! “Maybe Christmas, he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas…perhaps..means a little bit more!”
The Grinch had learned a lesson from the Whos. Christmas was not about all the possessions; it was about togetherness. His heart grew three times that day. He immediately hopped back on the sled and brought back the stolen toys, decorations, and food down to Who-ville.
The story concludes with the Grinch carving the roast beef himself for the Who-Ville feast.
Sources
Seuss, Dr. How The Grinch Stole Christmas! New York, Random House, 1957.