Shoot for the Moon

Shoot for the Moon
An Essay
Kirsten Peterson, Katrya Bolger and Brittany Graham

Some say that children see the simple truth of things. The same could be said for much of children’s literature. The Dr. Seuss books, those staples of bedtime stories, rather buck the trend. Certainly, you remember their silly rhymes and their black pen cartoons. They appear absurdly simple. As it turns out, the Dr. Seuss stories are a good deal more complicated, than say, various vampire novels aimed at preteens. Given how comparable their content is to our lives, Dr. Seuss can be considered to have had a very shrewd idea of human nature.

With his story “Yertle the Turtle”, Seuss shows us that when faced with a poor leader, we have a tendency to combine a large amount of inaction with an equally large amount of complaining. How many times have you seen Harper on th news and sighed? That is the problem that Seuss attempts to bring to our attention: we do nothing but sigh. In the story, all the turtles need is to refuse to cooperate and Yertle’s power would be broken. Leaders are a focal point for power but it is we who supply it in the first place, by supporting them. We should be, and are totally able to be, more forceful in influencing how our collective power is used.

Seuss shows that the leader's policy needs to directly affect our lives before we take action. Injustice, widespread suffering and rampant corruption are all to be regretted, but so long as they happen to strangers, we sympathize briefly and then continue with life. When Yertle commands nine turtles to build him a throne of themselves, there is no resistance in the community. It’s only when he orders his throne higher by two hundred turtles that the turtle at the bottom, Mack, is pressed into action. Faced with his shell cracking, Mack has no choice and has the perceived support of the majority.

The idea that a single event acts as a catalyst does not exist solely in Seuss’ children’s stories. In Nepal, King Gyanendra was overthrown for his abolition of the country’s parliament. The widespread offence to anyone who had voted caused huge retaliation. Between his initial crowning in 2001 and his seizure of Parliament in 2005 (BBC, 2008), Gyanendra was largely uncontested because he never did anything major enough to unite the whole country against him. Until his dismissal of parliament, that is. As King Gyanendra and Dr. Seuss’ Yertle demonstrate, it takes an event of magnitude in order for us to find the initiative to withdraw the support associated with a wayward leader.

Once the catalyst occurs, a new leader can manoeuvre to give focus and direction to all the dissatisfied. Mack performed this task for the turtles by uniting them in the statement: “down here below, we are feeling great pain”. Had it not been for Mack, their passive acceptance may have carried Yertle to the moon. Prachanda, leader of the Maoists in Nepal, also took it upon himself to voice the concerns of the majority, rural Nepalese. They have, ostensibly, been ignored by the king, as poor uneducated people unlikely to vote. Prachanda was willing to articulate their concerns in violence and rhetoric, highly appealing to those who have been disregarded too often and too long.

After his successful topple of the King Yertle, Mack becomes a figure of authority. While the book ends without Mack having used his power inappropriately, the fact remains that he profited most. The original problem of the king having a throne and being lord of all he surveys hasn’t been addressed.

Outside the realm of children's literature, King Gyanendra also betrayed his nation’s confidence, much as Yertle did. In doing this, he allowed the Maoist campaign to gain credibility and sympathy. Gyanendra took control of Nepal’s parliament because the guerrilla war in rural Nepal was intensifying. (Perry, 2004). However, the people’s impression was that he was greedy for power, and the ensuing demonstrations were among the largest Nepal has ever seen (BBC, 2008). A reversal of power occurred, with the king usurped by a schoolteacher, initiated and supported by the people. The people of Nepal have yet to see any marked changes in their lives, instead, things have gotten worse.

The new Prime Minister, Prachanda, is already using his influence inappropriately. He has been known to promote his personal interests before those of his constituents, having his daughter, Ganga, within his interim cabinet (Sarkar, 2008). As Mack did, Prachanda began at a lower rung in society; he was born in a rise paddy field. He has risen to control the people, those same people he once swore to liberate from oppression (Chandrasekharan, 2005). If Prachanda fails to meet the people’s expectations, “public euphoria will not last long” (Nepal: The Rocky Red Road, 2008). Thus the power cycle comes full circle, without much preventative change.

We do need leaders as a focus of power. The cohesiveness necessary to take action cannot be made without a driving force. However, once a “focus of power” has been established, it is necessary for us to evaluate its effectiveness in representing us. As can be seen in both “Yertle the Turtle” and Nepal, neither group demands different behaviour of their new leaders. Mack is sitting on Yertle’s same rock! And Prachanda, who presumably lives much better than the average Nepali, still insinuates in his speeches that he is “one of the people”. He was one of the people.

In writing a storybook about a dictatorship, Dr. Seuss was doing more than trying to put children to sleep. With his message that even the most inconsequential could influence power, he was trying to force us into action. The power that any leader holds derives from our support, therefore we should be able to direct its use. It’s excusable that turtles may not have the foresight, but as humans we ought to be able to grasp the concept Dr. Seuss thought simple enough to include in a children’s book.