Section 14
Oh the Things You can Think!
For our final journey into the Philosophy of Dr. Seuss, I’ll share Dr. Seuss’s take on the big question: What is the most important thing in life? Found in chapter one of Held’s book, Dr. Seuss’ book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! shares a fundamental life observance: as life throws you obstacles and challenges, you must make decisions and face your journey without fear. Yet, in real life these life altering decisions often force us to make hard calls that don’t always turn out the way we planned. This leads us to question how we go about making choices, and what makes a meaningful life? What, exactly, is success? Our gadfly, Socrates, was one of the first philosophers to address these issues, and referred to them as the most important matters in life. So today we will look at how Socrates initially evoked us to question our ‘initial’ beliefs.
Dr. Seuss’s book The Sneetches discusses how making unexamined and false belief decisions can lead to an unhappy life.
This story details the Sneetches that live on the beaches. While all the Sneetches are the same, one small difference causes a huge gap between them: some have star on their bellies, and some do not. Thinking the star-belly Sneetches are better, the non-starred Sneetches pay money to go through the Fix-it-up Chappie (a machine that will take off/put stars onto bellies). Once the star-bellied Sneetches see this, they pay to have their stars taken off. Without realizing, all of the Sneetches keep paying to have stars removed/applied...and in the end realize they can’t tell who started with/without stars. They realize they have been scammed, and finally agree that “Sneetches are Sneetches/ And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches” (3).
This story relates back to Socrates through his belief that we all have false beliefs that will lead to unhappiness, but like the Sneetches, we refuse to question or even acknowledge them: we accept worldviews just because everyone else does. What would have happened if the Sneetches stopped and thought about why they were divided? They would have saved time, money and heartache. Could our lives be spiraling down the Fix-it-up Chappie without us even noticing? Something to think about!
Thanks for reading my blog(s) about Dr. Seuss! If you would like to keep learning, go get the book and discover more Dr. Seuss philosophy!
Click here to watch "The Sneetches"!
Your midterm was really fun to read, Katy! It's encouraging to know that even in the simplest of things we can find some of the deepest of thoughts, and traces of Socrates that remind us to always seek out the truth.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this as well. I am huge Dr. Seuss fan. Might I also suggest you reading some Shel Silverstein
ReplyDeleteI think Sneetches was my daughter's favorite Seuss story. The anti-prejudice and pro-thinking message was impossible to miss, even for a 3-year old. I think Dr. S had as much to do with her (and millions of other kids') moral development as anyone.
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