The Art of the Pester: Marvin K. Mooney as Seuss’ Unofficial Sequel to Green Eggs and Ham Anonymous 10th Grade

It is not well-known that Dr. Seuss wrote a sequel to one of his most popular books of all time, Green Eggs and Ham. It is not well known for two reasons. Reason number one: the sequel was not a particularly popular entry into the Seuss canon. Reason number two: it was a thematic sequel rather than a character-based sequel. Maybe had Seuss made Sam-I-Am the agency in charge of pestering the protagonist to head off into self-exile in Marvin K. Monroe Will You Please Go Now!

Pestering is the key word; it is the crux at which these two stories are joined. Most readers are familiar with the story of Green Eggs and Ham: the poor put-upon narrator goes from resisting the title food to eating it and declaring his love for it after he has been pestered to the point of near-insanity by the corporate shill known as Sam-I-Am. Sam’s modus operandi for getting someone to do what they manifestly do not what to do is replicated in the story of Marvin K. Mooney. The only difference between here is that the person urging Marvin to go remains unidentified by name or physical description. In fact, the urger here appears only in the form of one enormous god-like hand. Nevertheless, this godlike figure works his magic by pestering.

Just as Sam...