Dr. Seuss was a famous author who has written many childrens’ books which are still read by our young ones today. His work has touched the lives of generation after generation for the span of nearly a century. For decades, Dr. Seuss’s work has been free of any controversy until now.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in the year 1904 and lived until 1991(85 years old). Seuss published over 60 children’s books during his career as an author., with his first being “And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” in 1937. He is well-known for his books to help children learn to read, such as One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, and Hop on Pop, his cautionary tales including The Lorax, and the inspirational Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Seuss created a unique writing style that has metamorphosed into its own separate category of unique vivacity and manipulated names and everyday words to create rhymes or desired beats per line. This was an unorthodox style that revolutionized writing as we knew it.
The writing style used in most of Seuss's work was called the anapestic tetrameter (Fenkl, 2002). This style involved using words that used two short syllables followed by one long syllable or using words consisting of two unstressed syllables along with one stressed syllable. After that, the verses would be organized into four lines. Along with this metric, Seuss also utilized full capitalization, italics, different sized letters, and different colored words to steer the reader down the paths of his books.
Six of Dr. Seuss’s books are no longer being published in stores as they are seen by some as racially insensitive. According to some publishers, many of the characters depicted in the book appear to follow many racial stereotypes. There were also several pictures in the books that were thought to have racial imagery.
The books that are being taken down include “If I Ran the Zoo”, “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street”, “On Beyond Zebra!”, and “McElligot’s Pool”. These books by Dr. Seuss were among the six pieces of work by the iconic to be taken down. His own estate said they “Portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” (Christopher Dolan/ The Times Tribune, via Associated press).
An example of this racial imagery would be where he illustrated a character in his book which featured many stereotypes which followed Asian cultures. The portrayal featured an Asian with slanted lines for eyes, carrying a bowl of rice with chopsticks. This image can be seen in the book, “Mulberry Street”, and was one of the six books that are no longer being published.
The estate’s decision has ignited mass controversy in news headlines with claims about “cancel culture” striking again. Because Dr. Seuss is a world-famous author, news of this happening has caused major blowback from the media.
Dr. Seuss’ Books are perennial best-sellers and are an important revenue stream for publishers. In the past year, over 338,000 copies of “Green Eggs and Ham” were sold across the United States. The book, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”, sold over 513,000 copies over the past calendar year.
Dr. Seuss is one of the most beloved childrens’ authors to face such controversy. Publishers and literary estates alike are attempting to preserve the author’s legacy while rejecting outdated cultural standards.
Some authors have self-edited their own work to prevent criticism. In the 1970s, Roald Dahl revised his book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which originally featured their workers as dark-skinned beings from Africa. He changed this to made-up people called Oompa Loompas in order to dodge charges of racism. This was not effective, however, as people still said they were essentially indentured servants.
While these books by Dr. Seuss will no longer be published, many people who already owned the books and already purchased them will still have them. This means the books will still be around, but they will no longer be in stores.