Summary
Written in anapestic tetrameter and narrated in the first-person perspective, If I Ran the Zoo opens with Gerald McGrew, the story’s protagonist and narrator, arriving at a zoo. He stands before a modest lion display in which a lion sleeps contentedly in his cage. The zookeeper stands with his hands in his pocket, also looking content. Gerald, a young boy, comments that the zoo is pretty good, and that the man who runs it seems proud of his zoo.
However, Gerald speculates that he would improve the zoo if he ran it. Gerald says he would make changes, such as releasing the old-fashioned lions and tigers to make way for something new. He would unlock the pens and cages, and then find beasts of a more unusual kind.
Gerald imagines a ten-footed lion, with five legs on each side. He imagines that people would stare and comment on the strange sight, praising Gerald. Gerald believes his new zoo—McGrew Zoo—will make people spread the word about his interesting new animals. He imagines a type of hen with a topknot of gathered feathers that other hens roost in. The illustration depicts the creatures, stacked on top of each while roosting in the hen below’s plumage.
Gerald says that’s just a start. He would also find an elephant-cat—a combination of elephant and cat. He imagines that people would be so shocked they would swallow their gum and question where he hunts such odd animals.
Gerald says if you want to catch beasts you don’t see every day, you have to go to places out of the way, such as the North Pole, where he would ride a snowmobile and pick up walrus-like creatures to bring to the zoo and make his menagerie grow.
Gerald says he will hunt in the mountains of “Zomba-ma-Tant with helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant.” Gerald says he would capture a Bustard bird and a Flustard beast. The illustration depicts caricatures of Chinese people helping carry a Flustard in a cage on top of their heads while Gerald stands on top of the cage, proudly holding a shotgun.
Gerald says he will catch animals in caves and brooks and crannies and nooks “that you don’t read about in geography books.” The illustration depicts Gerald arriving in a boat to the exotic-looking country of “Motta-fa-Potta-fa-Pell.” Two human figures stand on the shore watching him with fearful, skeptical looks on their faces. One of them holds a spear.
Gerald says he would load up five boats with “a family of Joats,” an animal whose features combine those of cows, squirrels, dogs, and goats. The picture shows Gerald tugging the Joats from the back of his ship.
Next Gerald says he will go to the Wilds of Nantucket. The illustration shows him using a pulley system to haul up a family of “Lunks in a bucket.” He imagines visitors to his theoretical zoo marveling at the creatures and asking each other what they suppose he will catch next week.
Gerald says he will capture animals tiny and cute, such as a deer no hunter would shoot—a deer so nice he could sleep in one’s bed, if it weren’t for the large, twisted horns on his head. Gerald says he would bring back an odd family of deer with horns so connected to each other that they can’t tell their own horns apart from those of their family members. The drawing depicts five deer looking up with concern at the network of interlocking horns above their heads.
Analysis
Dr. Seuss opens If I Ran the Zoo by establishing the story’s premise and the anapestic tetrameter style and rhyming scheme of the verse. He also introduces the major themes of imagination, public recognition, and global conquest.
Upon arriving at his local zoo, Gerald McGrew, the story’s protagonist and narrator, decides that he is not very entertained by the modest lion display. Despite the dullness of the zoo, Gerald observes that the humble zookeeper appears to be proud of his zoo. But for Gerald, the meager and uninventive animals on display do little to enthrall him. From this point on, Gerald uses his imagination to dream up a more exciting version of what a zoo could be.
Having established the premise, Seuss moves forward with the theme of imagination. Using silly-sounding, inventive language that includes made-up words and comical rhymes, Seuss evokes the boy’s imagination as he conjures up fascinating, never-heard-of animals. Gerald begins relatively modestly, imagining new animals that are modified versions of extant animals, such as a ten-footed lion and an elephant-cat hybrid. With the introduction of these creatures comes the theme of public recognition, as Gerald imagines his fantastical animals would garner shock and admiration from the people who visit his zoo.
Gerald’s initially modest vision quickly escalates as he imagines traveling to far-flung corners of the globe to capture and bring back made-up animals such as Flustard beasts and Bustards birds. But with Gerald’s expanding vision comes the major theme of global conquest—a perhaps unconsciously included theme for which If I Ran the Zoo has been criticized. The theme is evident in the way Gerald imagines enlisting servile non-white people to help him capture their indigenous animals.
The theme of global conquest is also bound up in racist portrayals of non-white people. For example, the people who help Gerald with the Bustard and Flustard are depicted as offensive caricatures of Chinese people and described as people who “wear their eyes at a slant.” The racially insensitive illustrations continue in the first half of the book with the spear-wielding Indigenous people of “Motta-fa-Potta-fa-Pell.” Gerald steams toward their shore in his boat, eager to capture their native animals to confine in cages and bring back to his home country.
