Introduction to Yertle the Turtle

Much like a typical Dr. Seuss book, Yertle the Turtle transforms a real life political situation into a story that is fit for children. At the time when Yertle the Turtle was first published (1958), the Holocaust was still fresh in mind. During the Holocaust, German dictator, Adolf Hitler, was responsible for the millions of deaths of so-called "sub-humans" such as Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and those who were considered inferior by Hitler and his Nazis.

In Yertle the Turtle, Dr. Seuss transfers the qualities of Hitler's character to Yertle, the King of his pond. He is displeased with his stone throne and thus, orders the other turtles in the pond to form a stack so he may sit on top. From the top, he may oversee his kingdom. When Mack the turtle, sitting at bottom of the stack, pleads to Yertle for pity, Yertle simply ignores it. In fact, Yertle continues to add more and more turtles to the stack until night falls. He is fuming to see the moon is higher than he. He decides to summon more turtles. However, before the command can be obeyed, Mack burps and down comes the stack of turtles. Naturally, Yertle reacts furiously.

While the Holocaust took place decades ago, there occurs such examples of dictatorship and violations of human rights to this day. When our group assembled, we found that the recent Nepali deposition of the monarchy reflects a similar situation. We decided to further investigate the similarities and thus, prove the universality of Dr. Seuss' work.

With this base of information, we'll begin to conduct our research. Stay tuned.