Chad Bartle
English 101
Laurie Bonventre
11/13/2013
The Innocence of Diversity
Throughout the history of mankind, societies have displayed countless presentations of
discrimination and prejudice against groups of people who were in anyway different from the
majority of the social group. In fact, this imperfection of man has shaped our world in ways that
are not even recognizable to the naked eye. Wars over religion, race, and political theories have
terrorized the evolution of a world-wide society since the beginning of time. Perhaps this
perpetual stigma that considering anything or anyone that’s different to be inferior is encoded in
our DNA, or maybe instead it’s something that is learned at a young age, and if that’s so, maybe
this idea of superiority can be unlearned or disemboweled. Ted Geisel, more commonly known
as Dr. Seuss, is one of the most influential story tellers ever to write literature. Dr. Seuss was a
children’s book author who often wrote simplistic stories portraying real-world problems and
challenges. Before his despair in 1991, Dr. Seuss had forty eight books published mostly all of
them illustrating an underlying message, usually depicting a societal conflict in a simple, straight
forward kind of way (Eliahu 2004). The story of The Sneetches was a short story depicting
diversity within a single species. “The Sneetches is about two types of creatures, separated by
having, or not having stars on their bellies” (Umich 2013). “The Star-Belly Sneetches think they
are the best, and look down upon Sneetches without stars” (Umich 2013). “The Plain-Belly
Sneetches remain depressed and oppressed, prohibited from associating with their star-bellied
counterparts, until Sylvester McMonkey McBean comes along with his Star-on and Star-off
machines” (Umich 2013). “He begins to give stars to the Plain-Belly Sneetches, and soon they
are happy, for they look like their elite counterparts” (Umich 2013). “The original Star-Belly
Sneetches are angry at no longer being different and special, so they get Sylvester to remove all
their stars” (Umich 2013). “This continues back and forth until no one can remember which
Sneetches were originally what, and an epiphany strikes them all at once: that it really doesn’t
matter whether a Sneetch has a star belly or not - they are all really the same, and can coexist and
be friends with one another” (Umich 2013).
This story told by Dr. Seuss is and very simple way of presenting a conflict between men
that has existed forever. Superiority and inferiority throughout history has been determined by
physical aspects- much like in this story- in all the corners of the world. In the United States
alone there are several time periods where diversity has had an everlasting impact on certain
minority groups; the one that comes to most people’s minds is the period of enslaving African
Americans in the early 20th century. Much like the story of The Sneetches this discrimination
came about because of physical differences between human beings. Although the premises of the
story and the slavery of African Americans are similar, one is obviously more devastating than
the other. Dr. Seuss begins his story by illustrating the Sneetches as the same species but with
one differentiation characteristic, stars on the belly. It is explained that although this was the only
difference between the two groups the star belly Sneetches acted superior to the non-star belly
Sneetches. The non-star bellies could not use the same facilities, associate, or even be in the
same general area as the star belly Sneetches. These restrictions held true to African Americans
in the early 1900’s along with being enslaved and owned by the white man. Shortly after this
conflict is presented in the story of The Sneetches a new character is introduced named Sylvester
McMonkey McBean who owned a star-on star-off machine that could change any non-star belly
Sneetch into a star belly Sneetch with the click of a button. The non-star belly Sneetches began
to change like crazy until every Sneetch was a star belly Sneetch. This of course angered the
original group that they were no longer superior and drove them to get their stars removed. At
this point in the story Dr. Seuss seems to be personifying the stupidity of the conflict. He makes
clear of how irrelevant physical characteristics are and how easily judgment can be manipulated.
Dr. Seuss wrote many stories depicting conflicts society has dealt with and sometimes
overcame given the right amount of time and effort. Although at a first glance his stories can be
nothing more than children’s books, it’s when you take a closer look that you see the messages in
Dr. Suess’ writings reveal deeper more complex scenarios that many people can relate too and
also learn from. Some conflicts like discrimination and prejudice sometimes have to be presented
in a much simpler fashion for people to understand that a simple problem can be fixed with a
simple solution; you just need to know where to start.
Work Cited
“WOOOOoooooo Dr. Seuss” Mary Eliahu. 2004
http://www.csun.edu/faculty/sheena.malhotra/GRCS
Files/Final%20Projects/The%20Sneetches.htm
Umich.edu. 11/26/13.
Web. n.p, n.d, n. page.
http://www.umich.edu/~childlit/Sneetches/display1.htm