The Sneetches is a short story by American children’s author Dr. Seuss, published in 1961. It consists of four separate stories with themes of tolerance, diversity, and compromise: “The Sneetches”, “The Zax”, “Too Many Daves ” and “What Was I Scared of?” According to an online survey, the National Education Association listed the book as one of “Teachers’ Top 100 Children’s Books”. In 2012, it was ranked 63rd in the top 100 picture books in a survey published by School Library Journal, the fifth of five Dr. Seuss books on the list.
Table of Contents
Summary
tells of a group of yellow bird-like creatures called Sneetches, some of which have a green star on their bellies. At the beginning of the story, Sneetches with stars discriminate and avoid those without stars. A businessman (and con man) named Sylvester McMonkey McBean (calling himself the Fix Guy) shows up and offers the unstarred Sneetches a chance to get them with his Star-On machine, for three dollars. The treatment is instantly popular, but this upsets the original Sneetches, as they are in danger of losing their special status. McBean then tells them about his Star-Off machine, which costs ten dollars, and the Sneetches who originally had stars happily pay the money to have them removed in order to remain special. However, McBean does not share the Sneetches’ prejudices and allows the recently starred Sneetches to go through this machine as well. Ultimately, this escalates, with the Sneetches running from one machine to the next…
“…until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
if this was that… or that was this…
or which was which… or which was who”.
This continues until the Sneetches run out of money and McBean walks off a rich man, amused by his madness. Despite his statement that “you can’t teach a Sneetch”, the Sneetches learn from this experience that neither the Easy Sneetches nor the Star Sneetches is superior, and they can get along and become friends. Seuss intended “The Sneetches” to be a satire of racial and cultural discrimination and was specifically inspired by his opposition to anti-Semitism.
The Sneetches PDF
