In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Green Eggs and War

What do green eggs, American isolationism and Adolf Hitler all have in common? Obviously they are all subjects in Dr. Seuss' work. While Dr. Seuss was telling Americans what he saw on Mulberry street, he was also using political cartoons to not so subtly urge them to actually fight in the war instead of just watching it. Apparently this side of Dr. Seuss' career is pretty well known, but I guess I am out of the Dr. Seuss loop. Here is a sample of his work...I especially like the last one.








Have you ever wondered why everyone hated the Nazis so much, besides the fact they were intolerant killing machines? I think it is because Disney told them to. Not one to be left out of the action or miss an opportunity to make a little money, Walt Disney churned out wartime propaganda films just to make sure everyone was on the same page in hating the Nazis and supporting the war. After all, Total War means that even cartoon characters have to do their part.

Donald Duck dreams he is a Nazi


The A-list of Disney characters reminds Canada to buy war bonds


How a Nazi is made

3 comments:

David said...

Wow! I had no idea how blatant Disney was with their propaganda. That is ridiculous. Lindsay do you know the years those cartoons were made?

Anonymous said...

Nonw od my video youtube links worked which is a shame. I knew that Dr. Suess was involved with some political opinions as a children's book that I read to a three year old several months ago was about two villages and the escalating tensions that in effect led to full out nuclear warfare. It was quite clearly advocating for nuclear disarmement. BUT I didn't know that he was also involved in the WWII era of TRYING to get the Americans to go to war. Very interesting, and I guess not so surprising that he was quite opinionated from the very articulate nature of his cartoons.

Anonymous said...

none of my* Don't quite know what happened here...