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Seuss: Master of Allegory, a la Shmoop. Step aside, George Orwell.

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No, seriously… step aside. Big Brother is coming.

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Heh. Gets him every time. Make way for one of the true masters of allegory…

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Dr. Seuss.

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This guy can take things like green slime and a guy on stilts and make us think of nuclear

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weapons and Neville Chamberlain.

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Even if we don’t know who Neville Chamberlain is.

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He’s that talented. One of Seuss’ books in particular is famous

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for representing something other than just a funny-looking creature in a strange land.

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In Yertle the Turtle, the main character is an allegory for a rather unsavory character…

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…Adolf Hitler.

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Well, they did both have a pretty hard outer shell.

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Seuss never comes out and says directly that Yertle is Hitler, but let’s examine the

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clues…

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Yertle takes over his little country by force…

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…ordering the other turtles to do crazy things like <<Yertle voice>> “Sit in your

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place while I sit here and rule.”

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Sounds Hitleresque to us. Adolf was never too keen on people milling around or going

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about their business. Yertle also wants to rule everything that

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isn’t already his…

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…the cow, the mule, the cat, the house, the blueberry bush…

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Really, Yertle? You can’t even let the blueberry bush go?

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Every time this reptilian dictator sees something that’s greater than he is…

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…like, oh… the moon…

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…he freaks out and starts destroying whatever stands in his way of ruling over it.

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You don’t see a lot of reasoning or logic coming out of this guy.

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The two also experience a similar downfall.

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Yertle goes down for his ambition…

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…just as Hitler did when he overextended in Russia…

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…and for mistreating the other turtles.

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Not the best idea Yertle had ever had.

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You don’t want to mess with bad turtle karma. With such a heavy subject underlying what

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at first glance might seem to be a pretty innocent story…

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…is this book in fact more for adults than it is for children?

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The colorful illustrations and cutesy rhymes might say otherwise, but…

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…plenty of adults watch South Park or Family Guy…

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…and those shows couldn’t be any less for children.

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Talking babies and dogs aside. What do you think?

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Is Yertle the Turtle intended for an adult audience?

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Or can it be enjoyed on a… less complicated level?

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Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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