Why We Chose Yertle - December 16, 2010

There are several themes present in the story of Yertle the Turtle and little Mack. Dr. Seuss himself said that Yertle was created to represent Hitler, who's insatiable lust to control the entire earth eventually led to his downfall. And it wasn't just the allied armies who defeated Hitler, it was all the people who worked on the group in occupied Europe, the resistance organizations who his Jews, blew up bridges, and tampered with supplies. This people can be represented by Mack, the little turtle on the bottom, who no one thought could ever accomplish anything. Mack burped. And that was enough to topple Yertle down into the mud. Dr. Seuss wrote a lot of stories, and drew a lot of cartoons, that were loosely based off the Second World War, but Yertle the Turtle is a story that highlights not only Hitler's cruelty, but the ability of humanity to withstand cruelty, and to overcome it.