When a topic like the Cold War is mention to children it can be a seen as a harsh and powerful time.The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss has many similarities involving events in the Cold War which makes it unacceptable to expose through children's literature.
In the Cold War many events happened due to the political and military tension. For example In 1961, Nikita Khrushchev which the soviet premier had ordered the Berlin Wall built to atop the flow of refugees from East to West Berlin (Danzer p677). The Berlin Wall was built by the Communist East German government to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the West (Danzer pR54). The Berlin Wall was built to halt large numbers of defections and to prevent East Berliners from commuting to
…show more content…
Seuss had many events that were similar to the Cold war (1947 - 1991). The Butter battle book had a wall that separated the Yooks from the Zooks due to many conflicts involving the butter side up and the butter side down. Well as Yooks and Zooks built a wall so did the event of the Cold War. The United States built a wall called "The Berlin Wall" to stop the flow of refugees from East to West Berlin (Government and Politics). Not only did they both build a wall but they also had conflicts against the other union. For instance The Yooks and Zooks from The Butter Battle Book had major conflicts against each due to many Zooks eating their bread with the butter side down, in every Zook house and in every Zook town every Zook eats his bread with the butter side down (Seuss 5). The United States also had a conflict with the Soviet Union, they were both being driven by a complex interplay of ideological, political, and economic factors (Thomas). The major people in both The Butter Battle Book and The Cold War had many similarities. The Chief Yookeroo was the main leader or known as the Yooks president. Chief Yookeroo was the commander for the bread butter side up which meant all the Yooks reported to his headquarters fort when needed. Similar to this character was Harry Truman, 33rd president of the Untied States. Harry Truman was given the oath of office in the White House by Chief Justice Harlan Stone (A+E Networks). Truman was the leader for the United States which meant anyone would go to him during the Cold
All through school, I was taught that the United States beat back the mighty Soviet Union and that democracy and freedom prevailed; what a joke. Brands brought up Korea and Vietnam, and all the lives lost for a questionable cause. The French should have handled their business over in Vietnam. When they could not oust the North Vietnamese, they should have cut and run instead of begging for help; this would have saved countless lives. A war over in the remote jungles of Vietnam to "establish and protect democracy" was the last thing the United States needed at the time. Brands book was clear in its reasoning and the author did an excellent job of putting everything out in the open. The author wrote the book in a way that allowed the reader to gather insight from events that are not commonly viewed in the manner he presents them. Brands put the Cold War into a different perspective that showed the reader that it was not an easy "victory" for the United States.
Throughout history, there have been numerous battles that ended in death and destruction but none have been as potentially disastrous as the Cold War which even now, is a favored topic in all kinds of literature. Dr. Suess' The Butter Battle Book shares many similarities with events and people from the Cold War and should be read by children so they can understand and learn from a story that grabs their attention.
The person I choose for this topic is Ronald Reagan, he is a big part on how the Cold War ended. Russia, as everyone knows, has always been competitive with the U.S.A, the two countries always go back and forth with each other to be the first at everything. Now the Berlin Wall had been there for some time, ever since 1961. The communist government of Eastern Germany created the wall because they wanted to prevent disaffected people who were trying to fleeing to the West. But with this little did they know the trouble it would cause for the future. There were four powers during the time, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States. Berlin was in the Russian sector, but because the powers were only split amongst four countries it became a
In the children's story ‘The Butter Battle Book’ by Dr. Seuss, two nations come to head with one another after a decades long conflict. The two nations, the Yooks and the Zooks, live on opposite sides of a wall and hate each other for their individual nations way of spreading butter. The conflict reaches a new high when one of the Zook’s guards destroys the weapon of the Yook guard. At this point the Yook guard trudges back to his leader to get a new weapon, something bigger and better than what the Zooks have. The rest of the story focuses on the both the Yook and Zook guards going back to their separate leaders and receiving bigger and better weapons to destroy the other side. At the end of the book it becomes clear that the if the conflict continues in the way that it has been going until now, both the Yooks and the Zooks will be unable to survive. In order to prevent this horrific downfall I am proposing a way to de-escalate the conflict in a way that will lead to conflict resolution or at the very least conflict management.
As previously stated there are many similarities between the Cold war and Dr. Seuss’s Butter Battle Book. The biggest being that the Zooks and the Yooks clearly represent the Soviet Union and the United States. In the book the Zooks eat their bread with the butter side down, while the Yooks eat it with the butter side up. The contradictions between the two is a satirical representation of Russia who were communist and the United States who were anti communist. Each disliked the opposing side very much, due to the way they wanted to govern themselves; like the way the Zooks and Yooks disliked each other due to the way they wanted to eat their bread .
The Cold War was the longest war in which the United States has ever partaken and is the only war that involved little to no fighting. After researching the events, reading historical opinions, and listening to lectures in class, I have come to the realization that the war was just an exaggerated argument between two neighbors over which model fence, wood or metal, they would allow in their yards. One neighbor, President Truman, wanted Democracy, and the other
The Butter Battle Book puts a simplistic view in the real conflict of the Cold War. Dr. Seuss makes the “battle” out to be as simple as the way someone butters their bread. In reality the conflict was about the freedom of millions of people and the nuclear arms race. In an article from The New Republic, the author outlines a few key differences. First off, the conflict was about something that is quite a bit more important than the side we butter our bread on. It involved the freedom of millions. Second, the wall that is in the book between the two groups grew on its own. The wall in the Cold War was built to keep the West out of the Communist Bloc. The final thing is that in the book the opposing groups do not seem to want to force their buttering habits onto the other side. During the Cold War, both
The novel, The Culture of the Cold War, is the all about the cold war and how that time period effected America in the 1960s. It talks about how the Cold War era haunted America with constant threats, and the talk of communism all across the nation. The author of the book, Stephen J. Whitfield, described that the Cold War gave the nation an identity crisis and that suspicion started to arise. The novel is very descriptive on that topic and elaborates on certain ideologies during that time.
Books would give an insight to how the government’s were handling the cold war. That is what Dr. Seuss did with his book called The Butter Battle Book. Dr. Seuss is known for using short phrases with lots of literary devices and doesn’t shy away from them to show how The Butter Battle Book is related to the cold war. Conflict development, imagery, irony, and onomatopoeia’s are all used in the Butter Battle Book to show how The Butter Battle Book is related to the cold war.
The cold war started in 1947 between the USSR and the USA.The berlin wall was one of the most significant symbols in relations to the cold war. Although the wall was a crucial factor that helped in bypassing what could have turned out to be world war three, many would agree that it impacted on the lives of german citizens in both positive and negative ways. People had their families split up because of the wall and there were also very limited supplies getting into west berlin due to the blockade.
The Cold War was marked by a seemingly ever continuous rivalry between WWII allies in a geopolitical and ideological war, each nation focused on their own agenda in a clash of political and economic structure and views for the future of the world. For much of the second half of the 20th century the Cold War became a dominant influence on many aspects of American society. Cultural battles ensued between the superpowers had as much if not more
The Cold War was the name given to the relationship between the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A. after the end of World War II. Germany was the representation of the war, and therefore, it became the most disputed country. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 during the Cold War. During late 1950s and early 1960s, the socialist government decided to build a fence across the city border and restrict access to the Western area. Over time, this fence became a brick wall, completely cutting off access to the west, leaving family and friends separated for almost 30 years. The Berlin Wall marked the different ideologies between the different systems of governments, how they functioned, and the meaning to the people.
The Berlin Wall had a major impact on humanity’s views on how society should be ruled. Berlin is the capital of Germany. After the ending of WWII, Berlin was split up into East Berlin, and West Berlin. East Berlin was communist, suffered from the repressions of the Communist Party. West Berlin had a better lifestyle, and had financial aid from the United States. From the years between nineteen forty-nine to nineteen sixty-one, approximately 2.5 million people from East Berlin escaped to West Berlin. This toll included skilled workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Because of the loss of these people, the economy in East Berlin was threatened. On August twelve-thirteen, nineteen sixty-one, the Berlin was built in order to stop the people of East Berlin from fleeing. The Berlin wall was a major point during the Cold War, and many opposed it. It gave another reason to detest communism.
In 1961 there was a wall build with barbed wire to separate the east and the west in Berlin. This resulted in a riot from the citizens who proceeded to attack offices, military officials, and threw rocks at military vehicles like tanks and cargo trucks. The people of Berlin were outraged, people were forced away from their friends and family and were not allowed to cross the border of the wall because Khrushchev wanted to gain control of the entirety of Germany.
The Cold War: A New History written by John Lewis Gaddis (a professor at Yale University who wrote other books such as The United States and the Origins of the Cold War and Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security) delivers a summarized, yet skewed interpretation of what had happened during the era known as the Cold War. Throughout the book, the author attempts to provide history of the Cold War, while adding in generalizations, incomplete facts, as well as flat out bias.