Dr Seuss is considered to be among the most significant cultural figures who founded a relevance during a turbulent cycle. He was an American cartoonist as well as an author and is widely known for the books he wrote for children such as- “The Cat in the Hat”, Horton Hears a Who” and others. However, in the years starting from 1941, Seuss became a political cartoonist for the newspaper of Liberals in New York named as PM. During these years he sketched more than 400 cartoons that focused on the Second World War (Brennan). Most of his pictures were focused on Hitler and his allies, but his primary goal was to talk against of the policy of the United States regarding isolationism that prevented the USA from taking part in the Second World War before the attack of Pearl Harbour (West). The essay aims to discuss the political cartoons of Seuss and his views on the essential social issue in the United States.
Seuss though a political cartoonist of America, never failed to criticise various aspects of life within the United States. One of the cartoons sketched by Seuss mocked the dangers posed by the Nazis along with the callousness about the lives of children who weren’t Americans. His cartoons were focused on racism, isolationism and anti-Semitism (Jenyk, Sarah, and Daniel). He disagreed and attacked the Lindbergh policy in America who wanted to prevent the US from entering the Second World War and also pleaded for racial tolerance. One of his cartoons shows a whale that is stranded on the mountain which was a parody of the policy of isolationism that was taken by America and one that became a social issue in the country (Barry). His cartoons also showed intolerance for races like Black, marginalised group and indigenous people that gave a message of racism that prevailed in the society of America. In one of his cartoons he showed a Jewish couple with an oversized nose and showed the black male boxers as gorillas. In the Judge and College Humour magazine he sketched a number of cartoons that depicted the Blacks as monkeys. Another cartoon also showed a picture of Black men with thick lips who were put up in the sale for the white men and captioned as “Take Home A High-Grade Nigger For Your Wood Pile” (Ishizuka). He drew another cartoon of a Japanese woman with her children and the caption spells the word ‘children’ as ‘childlen’ that mocked the Japanese people who cannot pronounce the word ‘r’ (Peterson). His cartoons also made fun of Asian people who were depicted with long pipes and naked body in the snow. His books too did not feature people of different colour that once again showed the substantial prevalence of racism in the United States. Therefore one of the most critical social issue in America that Dr Seuss conveyed through his cartoons was that of racism and hatred towards the Japanese.
His political cartoons were primarily directed towards war, Japan and Hitler. His Japanese pictures were purely racist and supported the killing of the Japanese people. His political cartoons, on one hand, showed sympathy and concern for the German people on the one side and on the other, he criticised the German leaders. At the same time, he portrayed the Japanese in a stereotypical caricature. After the attack on Pearl Harbour by Japan, every Japanese citizen was considered to be enemies of America that is very well portrayed in the political cartoons of Dr.Seuss (Minear, Richard, and Sopan). Another picture shows a man with a similar nose to that of a pig and a moustache that was similar to that of Hitler with squinted eyes. It showed the frustration of Americans towards the Japanese as well as Hitler. It shows how the people of Japan were seen as a group of an enemy (Minear, Richard, and Sopan). Other cartoons too were similar to the above one that once again showed how the Japanese people were losing their individuality. His cartoons also do not teach men or women of colour because they too were despised by the American authority as well as citizens. Through his advertising campaigns, he again showed racist depictions of the natives of Narraganset who were tribal people. His political threat still depicted anti-Japanese racism, where even the Japanese Americans were considered to be a threat to America (Jones). They were referred to as Japs. Before President Roosevelt gave the order of concentration camps to be built for the Japanese Americans, Seuss had drawn a cartoon that depicted the Japanese Americans on the west coast who were carrying explosives in their hands.
Furthermore, his cartoons, while showing racism also indirectly depicted injustice towards people who had nothing to do with the war. The Japanese people were falsely targeted due to their leader’s mistake of attacking Pearl Harbour in America. They were victims of the concentration camps built by the Americans to kill them (Oksman). It also showed the hatred towards the Jews and the Anti-Semitism concept that was portrayed in his political cartoons. He was the first one to suggest the fate of the Jews under Hitler and also hinted at the holocaust that Hitler was planning for them. He depicted this message through a cartoon where a forest is filled with corpses that are hanging from the tree with a label of Jew on them. Hitler, on the other hand, is shown to be draped with an extra rope over his arm with Pierre Laval, who was a French leader, and both of them were singing happily (Oksman).
His cartoons further made fun of the indifference that America adopted when the whole of Europe was engaged in a war. An animation that was sketched by Seuss showed a woman reading about a wolf named Adolf who were eating children. The wolf here symbolises Hitler. However, the woman who is reading the story states that they are not American but foreign children; therefore, it did not matter much. Through the cartoon, Dr Seuss criticised the policy of isolationism that was adopted by America and showed their lack of concern. It also revealed that by failing to stop the wolf, the American authority was only supporting the villain (Coatney). Other cartoons further mocked the leniency that Americans were showing at the time of war while Hitler was conquering one nation after another. A similar cartoon that depicted the above situation was that of the bird sitting on a tree with a hat of Uncle Sam. A woodpecker is shown to have chopped every tree of the forest that were labelled as European countries and is now targeting tree that was named England and says that after eating the last tree it will get tired and eat no more. It is here that Dr Seuss is trying to argue that it would be a mistake of thinking that Hitler, who did not spare any country, would not come after America (Kruger).
Through his cartoons, he also criticised the policy of isolation that was decided by the American authorities during the Second World War along with the country’s silence on the inhumanity that was being committed on the foreign children by Hitler. His cartoons further depicted poverty that people were facing due to the Second World War. The war was straining all the resources of America and they had to face inflation as America had entered the war after Japanese attack on the American Pearl Harbour. His book The Cat in the Hat showed widespread illiteracy and rebellion amongst children. It proved America’s absolute dictatorial power. It shows the social issue where America were trying to bring in labours from another country by depicting a cat who could not do his own work and had to bring workers who were better than him and therefore the cat realised the need for democracy (Saunders). “Horton Hears a Who” also talks about the social message of abortion that was prevalent in the USA but was not legal. He also talks about other social issues in America like conformity. Through his character’s resistance to conformism, Dr Seuss showed his struggle against fascism. His cartoons dealt with both political as well as social issues that were going within America and the latter’s policy to stay quiet while other countries were going through violence unleashed by the Germans. America only came to action when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour leading to their involvement in the Second World War.
Thus to conclude it must be noted that the cartoons designed and sketched by Dr Seuss showed their hatred towards the Jews as well as the Japanese people and blatantly exposed their contempt for people of other culture and race. His cartoons show his strong disagreement with the isolation policy adopted by the Americans. He also showed America as a heartless country and a coward because of their inability to take action against the Germans as well as the Japanese. The cartoons depict the uncaring nature of the Americans towards children of other race as well. However, later Dr Seuss stopped making anti-racist cartoons, but the latter always had a message that people had to decipher. He very well depicted the situation that was going on during the Second World War within and outside of America.
References
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