The Butter Battle Book
LC Class PZ8.3.G276 Bu 1984 | | |
| Preceded by | Hunches in Bunches | |
|---|---|---|
| Followed by | You're Only Old Once! | |
The Butter Battle Book is a
This book was written during the Cold War era and reflects the concerns of the time, as well as his own, regarding the perceived possibility that humanity could be destroyed in a nuclear war.[2] It can also be seen as a satirical work, with its depiction of a deadly war based on a senseless conflict over something as trivial as a breakfast food.
Plot elements of the book were adapted for Warner Bros. Animation's Green Eggs and Ham: The Second Serving.[3]
Plot
The Yooks and the Zooks live on opposite sides of a long curving wall. The Yooks wear blue clothes; the Zooks wear orange. The primary dispute between the two cultures is that the Yooks eat their bread with the butter-side up, while the Zooks eat their bread with the butter-side down. The conflict between the two sides leads to an escalating arms race, which results in the threat of mutual assured destruction.
The race begins when a Zook patrolman named Van Itch slingshots the Yook patrolman's "Tough-Tufted Prickly Snick-Berry Switch" (a many-pronged whip). The Yooks then develop a machine with three slingshots interlinked, called a "Triple-Sling Jigger". This works once; but the Zooks counterattack with their own creation: The "Jigger-Rock Snatchem", a machine with three nets to fling the rocks fired by the Triple-Sling Jigger back to the Yooks' side.
The Yooks then create a gun called the "Kick-A-Poo Kid", loaded with "powerful Poo-A-Doo powder and ants' eggs and bees' legs and dried-fried clam chowder", and carried by a spaniel named Daniel. The Zooks counterattack with an "Eight-Nozzled Elephant-Toted Boom Blitz", a machine that shoots "high-explosive sour cherry stone pits". The Yooks then devise the "Utterly Sputter": a large blue vehicle intended "to sprinkle blue goo all over the Zooks". The Zooks counterattack with a Sputter identical to the Yooks'. Eventually, each side possesses a small but extremely destructive red bomb called the "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo", and neither has any defense against it.
No resolution is reached by the book's end, with the generals of both sides on the wall poised to drop their bombs and waiting for the other to strike. The Yook patrolman's grandson (who had followed his grandfather to the wall) asks, "Who's gonna drop it? Will you, or will he?" To which he replies, "Be patient. We'll see. We will see..."
Television media
Television special
There was an
Cast
- Charles Durning as Grandpa
- Christopher Collins as Chief Yookeroo and Various Yooks
- Miriam Flynn as Miz Yookie-Ann Sue, Teacher, and Various Yooks
- Clive Revill as Van Itch
- Joseph Cousins as Grandson
Green Eggs and Ham
The book serves as the basis for the second season of Green Eggs and Ham, subtitled The Second Serving. Here, it is established that Yookia and Zookia are ruled by a "Dooka" and "Dookess", respectively; residents of both nations are relatively harmless, yet are convinced that the other is evil. Sam-I-Am and Guy-Am-I end up on opposite sides of the conflict.[3] The Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo is omitted in favor of a conflict over "Moo-Lacka-Moo", the substance said to serve as the Boomeroo's core in the book, which is acquired by the Yooks while the Zooks hire Guy to build a machine due to his habit of creating inventions that explode. Unlike the book, the conflict is resolved when the respective weapons destroy the wall, due in part to Sam-I-Am and his mother Pam's meddling, and Guy's step-daughter E.B. and the Dooka's son Looka share a butter sandwich with everyone watching.
Analysis
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Panel discussion on "Nature of War in Dr. Seuss' Butter Battle Book", New York Law School, March 1, 2013, C-SPAN |
The Butter Battle Book was removed from the shelves of some Canadian public libraries during the Cold War because of the book's controversial position regarding the arms race.[6][2] The book was initially criticized over its dark moral nature being too much for the eyes and minds of children. Dr. Seuss himself was unsure if The Butter Battle Book was for adults or children when he approached Random House to have it published.[2]
An article in the July 27, 1984, issue of the conservative magazine
Inspiration
Dr. Seuss wrote The Butter Battle Book while Ronald Reagan was in office, envisioning the potential of nuclear war with Russia. Reflecting back on his time in Europe in 1926, he remembered the
See also
References
- ^ a b Wilmes, John (July 30, 2018). "Dr. Seuss' forgotten anti-war book made him an enemy of the right". The Outline. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7388-3484-9.
- ^ a b "Green Eggs & Ham: The Second Serving 🍴 (Official Trailer) | Netflix After School". YouTube.
- ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
- ^ Dr. Seuss considered the 1989 television special of The Butter Battle Book to be the most faithful rendition of any of his works.
- ^ Schrader, Alvin M., and Canadian Library, Association (1995). Fear of Words: Censorship and the Public Libraries of Canada. Ottawa, Ont.: Canadian Library Association [ISBN missing]
- ^ The Butter Battle Book, National Review, July 27, 1984, p. 16
- ^ Clark, Roger S. "Is The Butter Battle Book's Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo Banned? What Has International Law to Say About Weapons of Mass Destruction?" New York Law School Law Review (v.58 2013/14) pp. 657–658
- )
External links
- The Butter Battle Book at IMDb
