The Sneetches and Other Stories

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The cover of The Sneetches and Other Stories

The Sneetches and Other Stories is a collection of stories by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). It is composed of four separate stories, unrelated except in the fact that most of the stories have important morals. The four stories are:

"The Sneetches"
"The Zax"
"Too Many Daves"
"What Was I Scared Of?"

The first two stories in the book were later adapted, along with Green Eggs and Ham, into the animated TV special Dr. Seuss on the Loose.

1 "The Sneetches"
2 "The Zax"
3 "Too Many Daves"
4 "What Was I Scared Of?"
5 Further reading

[edit] "The Sneetches"

At its simplest, "The Sneetches" is a story about yellow bird-like creatures called Sneetches. However its most important part is the lesson it teaches about racism.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Some Sneetches have a green star on their belly, and in the beginning of the story the presence or absence of a star is the basis for discrimination. Sneetches who have stars on their bellies are part of the "in crowd", while Sneetches without stars are shunned and excluded.

In the story, a "fix-it-up" chap named Mr. Sylvester McMonkey McBean appears, driving a cart of strange machines. He offers the Sneetches without stars a chance to have them by going through his Star-On machine, for three dollars. The old star-bellied Sneetches are furious until McBean tells them about his Star-Off machine, costing ten dollars. This escalates, with the Sneetches running from one machine to the next,

"until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew

Whether this one was that one or that one was this one.

Or which one was what one or what one was who."

This continues until the Sneetches have no more money and McBean leaves them. At the end of the story the Sneetches learn that neither plain-belly nor star-belly Sneetches are superior, and they are able to get along and become friends.

The story is an obvious allegory for racism and discrimination, and teaches the lesson that all people are the same on the inside, despite outward differences. It can also be viewed as a satire on fashion following and keeping up with the Joneses.

Geisel, a perfectionist and sensitive artist, almost scrapped the manuscript when he became concerned the story may wrongfully be taken as an allegory for anti-Semitism, and the stars on the birds' bellies might be taken as the six-cornered stars Jews were forced to wear in public under Hitler's rule in Nazi Germany. His publisher convinced him to go ahead with the book. Today it is one of his most well-known stories, and was even adapted for a twelve-minute animated short a few years later.

"The Sneetches" is written in anapestic tetrameter, and – as is typical for Seuss books – follows the rhyme scheme and meter very strictly.

[edit] "The Zax"

"The Zax" is a lesson about the importance of compromise. In the story a North-going Zax and a South-going Zax meet face to face in the desert.

Because they refuse to move east, west, or any direction except their objective direction, the two Zax become stuck, as they refuse to move around each other. The Zax stand so long that eventually a highway overpass is built around them, and the story ends with the Zax still standing there.

Like "The Sneetches", "The Zax" is written in anapestic tetrameter and follows a strict rhyme scheme.

[edit] "Too Many Daves"

"Too Many Daves" is a very short story about a mother, Mrs. McCave, who named all 23 of her sons Dave. This causes problems in the family, and the majority of the story lists unusual and amusing names she wishes she had given them, such as "Bodkin Van Horn" or "Zanzibar Buck Buck McFate". The story ends with the statement that "She didn't do it, and now it's too late".

Although this story could have a lesson related to individualism, it primarily focuses on all the funny names, and may well just be a fun story.

McFate would reappear in Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?.

[edit] "What Was I Scared Of?"

"What Was I Scared Of?" tells the tale of a character who repeatedly meets up with an empty pair of pale-green pants. The character, who is the narrator, is initially afraid of the pants, which are able to stand on their own despite the lack of a wearer. However when he screams for help and the pants also start to cry, he realizes that "They were just as scared as I!" After that the empty pants become good friends with the narrator, and are no longer afraid of each other.

This story teaches the lesson that you should not be afraid of things with which you are not familiar.

Unlike the other three stories in this collection, "What Was I Scared Of?" is written in trochaic tetrameter, which is the other meter that Dr. Seuss typically used.