the butter battle book. dr. seuss. (189)

i picked up the butter battle book in honor of dr. seuss' birthday.  i know, i know, his birthday was back in march, but i am barely getting around to blogging about this book.  what can i say i lagged.  but an accidental book fee (i thought i renewed it online but i hadn't) was the push i needed to finish this blog.

so prior to rereading this as an adult, i remembered the cartoon based on this book versus me reading the actual book. i am not sure where i saw it or how old was, but i do remember that i was really impressed how it was a children's story but also had this deeper meaning (i was unaware of what a metaphor was at the time.)

rereading it as an adult, i recognized the butter battle book as a metaphor for the arms race during the  cold war.  one does not need to dig deep to see that but for a child, it would be something that went over his/her head.  children probably see the lesson of the book as war or fighting being silly, which is correct read as well, and ultimately the message dr. seuss wanted to get across.

the battle of the butter battle book is between the zooks that butter their bread down and the yooks that butter their bread up.  in terms of the cold war, it is a great example of how capitalism and communism are two views that appear to be different but at the heart of the matter simply are a means of economic prosperity.  though i like to see the zook and yooks' buttering as a metaphor for religious ideologies.  at the end of the day, we all believe in god, or eat our bread and butter, we just use different ways of serving him or it.   

there is a wall (see:  berlin wall, iron curtain) that separates the zooks and the yooks.  there is a border patrol that guards both sides of the wall in an attempt to keep the enemy out.  to protect their walls and ideology on bread buttering, both sides build bigger and better weapons, (see:  cold war arms race) though they always ended up creating the same weapons. in the end, they both create a bomb to annihilate the enemy.  the book ends with the guard of the zooks and the guard yooks facing off, allowing the reader to reach their own conclusion about how the battle will end.  i imagine as a child, i was certain that they would not drop their bombs and make peace.  and though the cold war ended up being resolved, the skeptical adult me believes that they will both throw their bombs and end the world out of selfishness.  (i should add i am ready for the apocalypse, not so much because i have lost faith in humanity but because it would be kind of cool to life through the end of the world.)

the butter battle book is an excellent book not only for children but adults as well due to its anti-war message.  it demonstrates how silly (for lack of a better word) war is and how in the end we only end up harming ourselves.