At least since the 1950’s, Dr. Seuss had been couching very adult themes within his imaginative stories for children. Fortunately, the stories themselves were entertaining enough by themselves that kids and parents alike could enjoy them without even understanding—or necessarily agreeing with—the more heated social and political concerns lying within the subtext. This system worked well for Seuss for decades as even today most fans of Horton Hears a Who would likely be surprised to learn that what it is really about is American/Japanese relations in the aftermath of World War II.
The Butter Battle Book, however, is not so easily dismissed without “getting” that it is really about nuclear annihilation. Although certainly millions of adults have read it to their kids without fully appreciating this underlying theme and assuming it is merely a book about the absurd lengths two opposing cultures go to protect their person beliefs about which side of the bread should be buttered, the subtext here remains one of the most difficult to overlook in any Seuss story. Butter is not far enough way from nuclear weapons to disguise the fact that this is story featuring cartoon characters that is nothing less than dire warning about the potential for global devastation. In other words, pretty heavy stuff to read to a kid at bedtime.
The story itself is entertaining enough for kids to read or hear without getting any of that underlying symbolic stuff, fortunately. The real question is what impact it has on kids as they age. It is difficult to get away from the influence of Dr. Seuss as one ages. Even high school can be seen dressing as Seuss characters for Halloween and wearing clothing sporting figures from the Seuss-verse. The little five year old who was read The Butter Battle Book alongside Green Eggs and Ham and the Cat in the Hat grows into the middle school student learning how to approach literature with a critical perspective. Once one is taught about how stories can be about something but are really “about” something, the works of Dr. Seuss become relevant all over again. The Butter Battle Book becomes the iconic signifier of the value of developing critical thinking skills precisely because its subtext is so more forthright than his other books, not in spite of this fact.
It all comes back to those adults who read their children this book without themselves understanding that it was really a much more adult-oriented tale that has more in common with Dr. Strangelove than Thidwick. The works of Dr. Seuss already are standard issue for elementary school. It maybe possible to walk into a public elementary school in America and not find multiple copies of the works of Seuss, but it’s not a possibility worth placing a wager. The problem is that the same cannot be said of middle schools, much less high school. Dr. Seuss—and especially The Butter Battle Book—should absolutely be a required part of the English curriculum in the higher grades of the American educational system. This book along with Horton Hears a Who, Yertle the Turtle, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and several others offer a wealth of opportunities to teach students how works with which they are already deeply familiar on the surface level contain a whole secret world on another level which can only be accessed through the profound power of critical thinking skills.
