Short Story The Sneetches

What the Sneetches’ Stars Can Teach Us about Fancy Cars “The Sneetches” is one of those stories that every little boy or girl will come across in their early stages of reading. Simply, “The Sneetches” is a story about two kinds of Sneetches, the only difference being that some have stars on their bellies, and others do not. The Star-Belly Sneetches alienate the Plain-Belly Sneetches and exclude them from all Star-Belly Sneetch events. However, when Sylvester McMonkey McBean comes to town, he promises to change the Plain-Belly Sneetches’ fate, but does he actually help? Looking back at this story and analyzing it as a more knowledgeable student, one can dissect the story in an approach that they may have never realized when first reading it as a child. What may appear to an elementary school student as a story simply about stars and jealousy, or even to some middle school students as a story about racial inequality and discrimination, to a higher level …show more content…
In “The Sneetches”, it could be argued that Dr. Seuss is trying to make a point that it is not necessary for people to spend their money on something, for example a yacht or a Ferrari, only to show off their wealth, rather than something that they actually want for the usefulness of the item. By ending the story with the realization that it doesn’t matter what material possessions you have, Seuss could be trying to show that only once money is taken out of the situation can people ever be truly happy with what they have rather than always wanting something else. In summation, after looking at “The Sneetches” through a Marxist lens, one could see the struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat, as well as a strong importance of commodification in the Sneetches’ community which ultimately leads to its downfall, only to build itself back up once money had been removed from the