Theodor who had been widely famed by his reputation as a cartoonist as well as an eminent person in the domain of children literature. However, there has been differences in opinion in considering his work of art as a form of Political standpoint. The cartoons as they had appeared in the New York Newspaper. The [paper would like to use the gap in considering the work of a children author as a form of political agenda. The concern of the essay is to elucidate how one of the communicative form of art and literature has been used by Theodor Seuss Geisel as a mode of political propaganda to make the situation of the rest of the world explicate in front of the Americans (Kazmaz).
The cartoons chalked out by Dr.Seuss was highly satirical in nature and they had been framed around the basic philosophy of the Newspaper PM who used belief in the ideology that the ‘people should not be pushed around’. However, in contrast to the other portrayal of the political agenda what the readers experience here is an appeal to the common sense of the readers instead of aggressive persuasion. One of the early cartoon portrayed the ostrich bonnets that had been used by Hitler to gain some relief. The cartoon has been a criticism of the infamous gas chamber under the Nazi regime where the Jewish people had been persecuted relentlessly under the project of creating a world of ‘purer’ race (West).
Through the cartoon concerned Dr.Seuss tried to aim his criticism towards Charles Lindbergh who had voiced for a non-intervention on the part of the Americans who had been urged not to participate or communicate about the happenings in the Germany under Nazi regime. As such, the satirical nature of the comics were aimed to ridicule the ‘isolationist’ American who consciously tried to avoid the war. America has either been portrayed as an eagle or in the form of the Uncle Sam wearing attire adorned with Stars and Stripes. Most of the dialogues under the Uncle Sam has been seen as him voicing his opinion as isolationist as well as promoting the same.
Fig1: Cartoon portraying the Isolationist ideals
Richad Minear has been hailed as the author of ‘Dr.Sesus Goes to War’ as he gathered the works of over 400 as they have been published in the PM. The work of Dr. Seuss has been acclaimed in the perspective of the portrayal of Hitler in a humorous way. Hitler has appeared in the cartoons with funny attributes, completely different from his original character. However, there has been a long drawn debate whether the particular rendition of the image of Hitler was a political stance in itself or whether they had been done to mock the character is doubtable (Geisel, LeSieg, and Stone).
However, the cartoons are not always market by their content of humor but it contained the light of the darkness as well. Such can be experienced in one cartoon that depicted the Jews who have been hung from tree amidst of a forest, which Pierre Laval and Hitler had been passing through. However the gruesome attribute of Hitler ad they have been portrayed in certain caricature have seen Hitler in a dark light and the portrayal had been close to the reality of the situation prevalent as well. In the opinion of Geisel, he had stated that his intention was not to deal with tragedy in particular however, through the mode of escapism he had used unhumorous attributes in order to attack the isolationist ideals of the American society (West).
Such attributes have been portrayed in the cartoon the depicted a mother who was reading out a story to her children which featured a wolf by the name of Adolf. The Wolf had gobbled up the children however, the act did not cause much harm to the foreigners (Nel).
Fig2:A mother reading out the story of ‘Adolf’ the Wolf
A huge proportion of the cartoons draw by Dr. Seuss had been aimed with a focus of the isolationist movement of ‘America First’ that took its form in the year of 1940 (Bryant and Bryant).
Fig3: Criticizing the America First
In one of the image drawn by Seuss, comparison has been established between the Nazi regime and the American First movement. The picture depicted a man in the blazer containing the mark of the American first and another man with a mark of swastika had participated in the Great U. S sideshow. Another of the similar form of depiction can be seen in a portrayal that depicted a kangaroo titled America First had been moving out whimsically. Out of its spouts have emerged a series of Kangaroos carrying the tags of Nazis, fascists and communists successively. The criticism also involved the American prevention of the Jewish escaping the domain of Nazi regime. Dr.Seuss had invested his faith in the children of the nation for whom he used to write initially. As such most of his works can be seen as an appeal made to the tender minds of the nation, urging them to be tolerant, aware and exhibit resistance to the fascist power (Minear).
The work has portrayed the ethical appeal to the American society particularly to the children who were the basic reader of Geisel. With the focus on the emotional aspect of the gruesome incidents that were happing around the world, he tried to evoke the emotional consciousness by hinting upon the logical aspect of the atrocities and the appeal was to the general human conscious to revert against the fascist ideology with all its force. The emotional consciousness was evoked keeping in concern the appeal towards the emotional attribute of the people towards the threats posed by the atrocities towards the humanity in general (Minear).
Another notable work of Dr. Seuss titled as the Yertle the Turtle that had a Hitler moustache which later made its existence felt in the form of power hungry turtle that had exhibited the base of the fascism in its most crudest form. Giesel’s work exhibited his criticism of the of the isolationist policies as adopted by the Americans as a reaction to the happening in Germany as well as in Japan. As such, he had attributed the reaction of the Americans happening in the front in the perspective of the cowardice and heartless. His criticism was aimed at those who according to him was the primary cause behind the degradation of the America in the form of its values and ethics (Minear).
The cartoon that had been published under the title of ‘The Isolationist’ featured the figure of the Charles Lindberg in the form of a Whale residing in the foothill of Alps. Though the criticism was towards the isolationist ideals of the Americans, he was conscious about not voicing his concern in the line that the American Isolationist were actually Nazi in their approach. However, his depiction had made it elucidate that the Nazis were detrimental for the Americans as well (Minear).
The issues highlighted by Geisel in his work moved beyond to include the aspects of fascism, anti-Semitism, Nazism and the discrimination that are being faced by the African American in the run. The cartoons of Geisel, in the words of Spiegelman commented upon the criticism as put forward by Geisel saying that the works have aptly criticized the anti-Semitism ideology of the Lindbergh and the Crows policies. The work of Geisel voiced the philosophy of the PM that had voiced their opinion against the ideals of ‘Pushing people around.’ The art of Dr.Seuss is fuelled by the anger born out as a reaction to the flaws. As such, the arts were funny as well as being endearing (Minear).
However, his works have received criticism for the portrayal of the Japanese and the Japanese Americans in a stereotypical way. As such, the portrayal of the cartons has been considered in the light of the racism that they exhibited. In the February a cartoon has been published that appeared to be disturbing to a large number of people because of the portrayal of the common American belief that the Japanese are non-patriotic in their outlook (Minear and Deb).
After the attack on the Pearl Harbor, the focus of the cartoons of Geisel was more focused on portraying the promotion of the moral building and the focused being concentrated upon the sale of the bonds form during the war (Minear).
In order to conclude it can be said the main purpose of the book was to collect all the works of Dr. Seuss, aimed at creating an awareness among the people of America in response to the happening around the world during the time of World War 2. The cartoons were created with the aim at making political statements in a satirical way. The movement of ‘America First’ had been the central point of criticism for Geisel where he portrayed the close link between the nature of the isolationists of America as well as between the Nazis without drawing any commonality between the two in an explicit manner (Jacobson).
Works Cited
Bryant, Mark, and Mark Bryant. World War II in cartoons. Grub Street, 1989.
Geisel, D. T. S., Theo LeSieg, and Rosetta Stone. “Dr. Seuss.” The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. Beginner Books. Random House (1958).
Jacobson, Valerie Lynn. “World War II Propaganda and the” Ideal Citizen”.” 2015 NCUR (2015).
Kazmaz, Zeynep. “Print Propaganda Art in World War II America.” (2017).
Minear, Richard H. Dr. Seuss goes to war: the World War II editorial cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel. New Press, The, 2001.
Minear, Richard, and Sopan Deb. “The Dr. Seuss Museum and His artime Cartoons about Japan and Japanese Americans.” ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL-JAPAN FOCUS 15.16 (2017).
Nel, Philip. Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004.
West, Mark I. “Dr. Seuss’s Responses to Nazism: Historical Allegories or Political Parables?.” The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children’s Literature 19.1 (2016).
