'The Sneetches' By Dr. Seuss And Martin Niemöller

In the stories/nonfiction poems, “The Sneetches” and “First they came…” Dr. Seuss and Martin Niemöller portray the effects of herd mentality in real and fictional scenarios. Niemöller shows his experience during Hitler’s reign and how others blindly ignored people suffering which led Niemöller to be alone when he was singled out because no one was left to stick up for him. Dr. Suess shows mob mentality in a fictional scenario and how people would do anything to change who they are in order to feel better than others. Dr. Suess and Niemöller use repetition and character speech in order to convey the theme, when others blindly follow someone they can lose sight of what's right and feel great regret. Niemöller uses repetition in his poem in order

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” Niemöller shows the reader how he didn’t realize he was helping the mob by not taking action on the injustice that was happening to the world around him until it was too late. No one was left to defend him when he needed it, because he did not think earlier that speaking up for them was his problem. He was not involved in all the harm being done and remained a bystander until it was too late and he turned into a target. Once that happened he realized what happened to everyone else and how it was really his problem all along. If he had just stood up for the people around him then he wouldn’t be stuck, defenseless against the biggest political power of the time. Dr. Suess used his books and drawings in order to spread awareness of the situation happening in Europe and how Hitler was trying to put the blame on other religions and minorities so he could explain the crisis Germany was going

Seuss wanted to show how Hitler rose to power. Hitler came to German citizens during a time of economic crisis and told them he had the “reason” for all of their misfortunes. He used various minorities (especially Jews) as scapegoats in order for the people to trust him so he could gain power. Hitler told the people he can make Germany better by eliminating minorities. Authors who want to create a theme often use repetition and character’s speech. Repetition emphasizes various parts of the theme which helps the reader understand what the author is trying to get them to take away from the text. Character’s speech shows the reader why a person does what they do or what they believe is the right thing to do. If Hitler never came to the people and told them that he had the solution to their problems. Then a lot of people wouldn’t have suffered from the accusations Hitler said about them. But since Hitler used the different minorities as scapegoats, he was able to gain more power, cause the Holocaust, and start World War 2 and people were able to learn, when others blindly follow someone they can lose sight of what's right and feel great regret. People who blindly follow who they believe is their hero can learn quickly that they were hurting the people around them and