Dr. Seuss

How can a man reach an audience of millions both young and old with a moral purpose

that entangles itself with a hidden symbolic meaning that appeals to the already matured mind?

The answer to this question that proved brilliant and adored by hundreds of millions around the

globe was none other than beginner books for children! The man to master this marveled line of

literature proved a man by the name Theodor Seuss Geisel, otherwise known by his ongoing fans

as Dr. Seuss. According to NPR's Weekend Edition, "Dr. Seuss." by Steven Stark, Theodor

Geisel has accounted for four-hundred million books sold during his life time. Can you even

fathom the number of lives touched by these books, I can not! The writing styles of Dr. Seuss

have become the highest noted in the area of beginner books for children while captivating the

minds of parents who helped their children with these books. Who was the man behind these

fabulous writings and what could have inspired this fascinating penmanship.

Theodor Seuss Geisel entered this world in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts where his

father and grandfather were both brewmasters. According to an online article, "All About Dr.

Seuss" Theodor's mother use to rhyme him to sleep and proved the source for Seuss' natural

rhyming abilities. Ted left for Dartmouth College as a teenager where he gained his first editing

job of the Dartmouth humor magazine called the Jack-O-Lantern. Ted lost this job when he and

his friends were caught throwing a drinking party which, during the time, proved highly illegal

due to the prohibition laws passed during World War I. Also, according to "All About Seuss"

this proved the first time Ted used the "Seuss" pseudonym, which was both Ted's middle name

and his mother's maiden name, to sneak in articles to the school magazine. After finishing his

studies at Dartmouth, Ted went on to Oxford to become a college professor. Ted soon became

bored with his studies at the college and decided to go on tour in Europe with his new wife

Helen Palmer, who also became a children's book writer and book editor. After their travels Ted

became a cartoonist for the Evening Post where he drew his first cartoons.

Ted used cartoons as a form of imagery for his younger readers in his line of Dr. Seuss

books. These cartoons were one of the main factors that help to make him the recognized

children author that he has become today. Each page in his line of Dr. Seuss books are filled

with cartoon characters that enchanted the developing minds of their audience and made the

children focus in on what they might have otherwise had a hard time of understanding. This also

helped the children to anticipate and crave the next page of each book. Now, looking back this

form of entertainment and education seems like such a simple idea, but at the date of publishing,

using these cartoon characters to keep the minds of an audience intone with the underlying moral

meaning of the book proved a new and revolutionary breakthrough.

One factor that made Dr. Seuss books acceptable and adored by the parents who bought

the books for their children proved none other than the moral concepts and life lessons parents

were already desperately trying to incase inside their children. Each book outlined a moral or life

lesson through out it that would help his readers later on in life. Here fallows just one example of

these lessons, "If you read with your eyes shut you're likely to find the place that you're going is

far, far behind." (Seuss, I can 32) This passage is telling its reader to keep your eyes open for

meaning in life for if you keep them shut you may never find your calling or so called purpose.

Another message Dr. Seuss tried to relay to his readers through his writings was to not run from

new experiences in life.

A book that challenged its readers to take on new experiences and changes in life proved

another

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