Dr. Seuss
Philosophy 101
25 March 2014
Seuss-ism
“Think left and think right and think low and think high, Oh, the things you can think up if only you try.” Dr, Seuss’s fun children’s rhymes are known by many, with over 200 million copies of his stories sold, but do these fun little stories hold a deeper meaning? Theodor Seuss Geisel also popularly known as the children’s author “Dr. Seuss” hides his philosophical views on individuality within the rhythm of his most popular books. Theodor Seuss Geisel was brought into this world on March 2nd, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. As a young child, Geisel’s mother introduced rhyming patterns to him while putting him to bed, which helped develop his rhyming skills that would become of great use to him in his future endeavors. Growing up in the time period of World War I and the prohibition era, Geisel faced many challenges due to the fact that his parents where German immigrants; however, he never let the financial and social problems effect his learning. Geisel went off to Dartmouth College and became the editor of Jack-O-Lantern, the schools humor magazine. Although Geisel enjoyed the paper very much, his time as editor was cut short when he got caught drinking at school with friends, which at the time was illegal and strictly against school policy. This caused him to be kicked off the paper, but Geisel still wrote in under the name “Seuss.” After graduating college, Geisel set of to Oxford University, to live out his father’s biggest dream for him that being becoming a professor. Here he met his first wife, Helen Palmer who was a children’s author as well as a book editor. Although Geisel wanted to make his father proud, he became bored and tired with his studies so he decided to tour Europe. When Geisel returned to the States after his European adventure, he became active as a cartoonist for many publication companies, but most of his work was done for a publication called Standard Oil, where he illustrated
25 March 2014
Seuss-ism
“Think left and think right and think low and think high, Oh, the things you can think up if only you try.” Dr, Seuss’s fun children’s rhymes are known by many, with over 200 million copies of his stories sold, but do these fun little stories hold a deeper meaning? Theodor Seuss Geisel also popularly known as the children’s author “Dr. Seuss” hides his philosophical views on individuality within the rhythm of his most popular books. Theodor Seuss Geisel was brought into this world on March 2nd, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. As a young child, Geisel’s mother introduced rhyming patterns to him while putting him to bed, which helped develop his rhyming skills that would become of great use to him in his future endeavors. Growing up in the time period of World War I and the prohibition era, Geisel faced many challenges due to the fact that his parents where German immigrants; however, he never let the financial and social problems effect his learning. Geisel went off to Dartmouth College and became the editor of Jack-O-Lantern, the schools humor magazine. Although Geisel enjoyed the paper very much, his time as editor was cut short when he got caught drinking at school with friends, which at the time was illegal and strictly against school policy. This caused him to be kicked off the paper, but Geisel still wrote in under the name “Seuss.” After graduating college, Geisel set of to Oxford University, to live out his father’s biggest dream for him that being becoming a professor. Here he met his first wife, Helen Palmer who was a children’s author as well as a book editor. Although Geisel wanted to make his father proud, he became bored and tired with his studies so he decided to tour Europe. When Geisel returned to the States after his European adventure, he became active as a cartoonist for many publication companies, but most of his work was done for a publication called Standard Oil, where he illustrated