ipl-logo

Symbolism In The Butter Battle

1351 Words6 Pages

In Dr. Seuss’s, The Butter Battle Book he uses seemingly harmless items to make connections to the cold war, a potentially deadly war. He does this by using symbolism and themes to bring attention to the matter. Seuss wrote the book to show how bad an arms race and specifically nuclear weapons are for the world. .He also uses more specific examples to add meaning to his story. Some of these include the “Big Boy Boomeroo” that symbolizes the atomic bombs, Grandpa and Van Itch representing the armies of the two countries in the cold war, and the fight of two different ideologies, the allies a more democratic ideology and the Soviets a communist regime. Seuss also uses many themes to make a comparison to the Cold War. One of the themes is the competition between the two sides. Another is the fight for power of the land. The third is the fight for modernization and creation of new technology. The cold war was a war between the United States and the Soviet Union and allies of the two. The cold war was called that because no side ever dropped a nuclear bomb causing it to go “hot”. After World War II where both countries fought together tension grew when the Soviet Union began to take over eastern …show more content…

This theme means that each side is trying to modernize their technology to get a leg up on the other side. This is used numerous times in “The Butter Battle Book”, one of these times is when the yooks use the snick-berry switch and it is shot into pieces. This shows that since the snick-berry switch was working the zooks had to design a way to beat it so they could have dominance over the wall. This is shown when Seuss writes “Then one terrible day a very rude Zook by the name of VanItch snuck up and slingshotted my Snick-Berry Switch” (6)! Since the looks had control of the wall which means that what the zooks were doing was not adequate the zooks had to design new and more modern equipment to regain

Show More
Related
792 Words | 4 Pages

A period of political and military tension between the United States and the USSR plagued the world with the possibility of a third World War from 1947 to 1991. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, and Harry Truman, President of the United States, both fought to become the world power when aiding in reconstruction following the events of WWII. Although no armed conflict occurred, this period of time is known as war, being named the Cold War. In 1984, in the midst of the tensions between the USSR and the USA, The Butter Battle Book, written by Dr. Seuss, tells the story of a fictional war between the Yooks and the Zooks over their differing opinions on how to butter their bread. Despite it being a lighthearted tale, “The Butter Battle Book”, by Dr. Seuss, shares similarities to the cold war because of the parallels in propaganda usage, the arms race, and ideological

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

“The Butter Battle Book” by Dr. Seuss mirrors the Cold War fairly accurately in a simply worded, yet deep, children’s tale. One major theme exemplified is the difference in political ideology. Initially, one can see that the Yooks and the Zooks wear very distinct and very differently colored clothing. The Yooks sport blue shirts and pants, while the Zooks’ don entirely orange attire. This resembles blue for the United States and red of the Soviet Union.

Read More
804 Words | 4 Pages

In the book The Butter Battle Book, by Dr. Seuss, between two different communities of people with different beliefs lays a wall. On one side of the wall live the Yooks who eat their bread butter side up. On the other side of the wall live the Zooks who eat their bread butter side down. The book is a satire of the Cold War, which took place from 1947-1991.This book is better than other satires because it gives the reader a clear story about what the satire is really about and uses many devices to help with the satirization. Throughout the story, Dr. Seuss uses conflict, parody, and reversal to demonstrate the reality of the Cold War.

Read More
1361 Words | 6 Pages

The Cold War was a war of betrayal, competition, morals, misunderstanding, and fear. Spies, nuclear bombs, blockades, and rockets are weaved into the events

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

The Cold War began around the time the wartime confederation between the United States and the Soviet Union broke down, during the years 1945 - 1950. The battle between the two dominions, communism and capitalism, battle for more than 40 years. The Cold War essentially began with empty threats about bombing each other with weapons including nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles resulting in nothing but a game of I guess you can say “one on one basketball”. There were two sides to this war the entire time but the main countries that were battling was the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States, along with Canada and ten other nations of Western Europe, signed a treaty known as the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) in 1948.

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

The Cold War could be characterized as a war of economic and political actions. Since the United States and the Soviet Union never actually opened fire on one another, there was no distinct means of reaching victory. Both these governments wanted to use the faces of innocent children to rally people to war. Soviet and American politicians worked hard to bring forth an image of a perfect Cold War child. They wanted their citizens to look at happy photos of young children so their people would want to fight in order to defend the innocent.

Read More
668 Words | 3 Pages

In the novels Fahrenheit 451 and Lord of the Flies, the parallelism in both novels traces through events that occurred during the Cold War that were reflected in the novels to help emphasize the evils of humanity. The Cold War began in the 1950’s, the same time as both novels were written, and was between the United States and the Soviet Union due to the fight of the communist Soviets and the capitalist United States. “Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and concerned about Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical, blood-thirsty rule of his own country.”(Cold War History, n.pag). The two countries’ fight caused an arms race, which created a growing fear, especially in the US, of who was going to be annihilated first.

Read More
1297 Words | 6 Pages

The 4 ½ decade long clash between the U.S. and Soviet Union was dubbed “The Cold War” by Bernard Baruch because of the cold relations between the two competitive nations. The tension between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. began primarily because of the polar opposite ideologies of each nation, the U.S. being Capitalist and The Soviet Union being Communist, causing a multitude of disagreements between the two. The disputes between the two countries began during WWII when the U.S. left their Soviet allies flapping in the wind, when they refused to open a second front, which resulted in the Soviets taking a beating. The U.S. later excluded The Soviets from the Atomic bomb project, since the U.S refused to work with their scientists. The U.S was also becoming

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

The Cold War was a time in history when there was a great political and military turmoil between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War shaped the world in these three ways, women’s rights, society,Cultural. These three changed people in positive and negative ways. Once again, women were called upon to fulfill a role in the defense of America on one hand to perpetuate the American population and on the other to promote American ideals abroad. Women had a chance to be equal to men.

Read More
2117 Words | 9 Pages

War is based on fear and threats. The Cold War and The Butter Battle Book have many similarities in people and events and should be exposed to children through children literature books. The Cold War was a period of economic, political, and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991. The Berlin Wall was a major key point in the Cold War.

Read More
224 Words | 1 Pages

The Cold War did occur after WWII between the United States and The Soviet Union at the time of President Ronald Reagan administration. The Soviet union and its government had the ideology of spreading communism around the world. The United States was against communism and this why the country went to war with Vietnam. "Containment" was the ultimate goal by the U.S. to preventing communism from happen worldwide. My perception of the Cold War and the War on Terror is due to the lack of the United States government to understanding other countries language, culture and way of life.

Read More
586 Words | 3 Pages

Seuss is well known for his illustrated children's books; the illustrations are usually cartoony and depict impossible things but what is not usually noticed is the fact that his pictures usually represent something else. For example, as The Butter Battle Book progresses [punctuation error] the wall, introduced in the first pages, continues to get higher; this represents the Berlin Wall. Another example found in The Butter Battle Book is the increasingly outrageous outfits and weapons the Yooks and Zooks use; it helps show how desperate each side was to outdo the other. Near the end of The Butter Battle Book Seuss uses a small, purple egg looking thing to represent the atom bomb; he is showing how the smallest thing in existence can also be the most powerful

Read More
2040 Words | 9 Pages

These weapons symbolize terror and fear because they are dangerous. Both weapons are severe and cause a lot of destruction (Goodall). The chief of the Yooks symbolizes the President of America during the Cold War, who was Ronald Reagan. The chief of the Yookeroo advantages and privileges the Yooks. Chief Yookeroo forces the countries to ruin their relationship (Goodall).

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

Sarah Paroya D period I hate MUSH The end of World War II should have marked a period of relief in America but instead, it lead America into a completely different type of war called the Cold War. The Cold War was an ongoing state of political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. This constant state of tension and fear had been embedded deep in the American public.

Read More
969 Words | 4 Pages

Some historians believe the Cold War was inevitable because of the hostilities from both America and the Soviet Union after World War II. America believed that the USSR was an expansionist country trying to spread an evil, communistic idea throughout the world. Although the countries never directly fought against each other, as they only fought in proxy wars, there was still extreme conflict. The United States responded to the Soviets actions in Germany, Europe, and their national actions. These responses were justifiable, or so many Americans at the time believed.

Read More

More about Symbolism In The Butter Battle

Open Document