Narrative Criticism – Dr. Seuss - The Sneetches

“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars.
                 The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.
                Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small.
                You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.” – Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss just happens to be a favorite of mine.  His stories have a clever and simplistic way to reach children about some important lessons in life.  I chose The Sneetches for my narrative criticism.  The objective of this short story is to teach children about prejudice and tolerance. 

The story of the Sneetches is rather quite short, but a frightful story of some sort.  There are two kinds of Sneetches, some with green stars on their bellies and some without. They live together on the sunny beaches.  The Star Belly Sneetches reject the Sneetches without stars because they are different from them.  They taunt and tease all day long in the form of some very mean songs.  One day, the Plain-Belly Sneetches decide they’ve had enough of those star-bellied mean ways and decide to get stars on their bellies and have it their way.  With the swift help of one clever neighbor the Plain-Belly Sneetches become Star-Bellied Sneetches.  To their delight they are equal now.  But caught by surprise, they see the fright on the faces of those original Star-Belly Sneetches.   In the same fashion, the clever neighbor offers a deal to have the real Star-Bellied Sneetches remove those stars.  With one quick move, the stars are gone.  And wouldn’t you know it, they claim only Plain-Bellied Sneetches are the best on the beaches!  Before long, the Star Bellied and Plain-Bellied Sneetches had their clever neighbor adding and removing stars to be like one another all day long. This happened until no one knew who was who?  In the end the story goes so I’ve read…

“…the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day.

The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches.
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether
They had one, or not, upon thars.” – Dr. Seuss

This story is one I have shared with my children and although they are young and do not understand what prejudice and tolerance is, some day they will.

 It’s unfortunate we still face prejudice in our society today.  If we are vigilant and teach tolerance from a very early age, our children can learn to appreciate and learn from others differences.