No good can ever come of allowing a stranger inside when Mum is out, of course. The children’s goldfish, representing the inner stirrings of reason, warns them to chase the Cat away. Striding in, full of confidence and umbrella dripping wet, the Cat unveils a series of tricks, all designed to entertain the kids, yet leaving mess after sticky mess, every trick messier than the next. With a huge BUMP, the door opens, and in walks the Cat. Seuss’ rhyming, inventively weaving only easily readable one-and two-syllable words, compels readers young and old inside to see what happens next. All they can do, whines the narrator, is “Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit!” in one of a hundred ranch homes, each located on a near-identical plot of land in the bland American Midwest, The Cat in the Hat begins on a “cold, cold, wet day” with Sally and her brother, the narrator, staring out the window, lamenting that they can’t play ball or even go outside. Like many children are wont to do, these kids’ minds re-invent temptation in the form of a human-sized cat who carries out the children’s own fantasies, getting into more trouble as time goes on.
This story tells of such a day, told from the children’s own perspective. A quick cover-up usually wasn’t enough to camouflage the mischief done in her absence.
Whether it was dumping the contents of Mum’s pantry into a bowl to make a “cake” or cutting their favourite doll’s hair in the latest ‘do, children’s fun was short-lived when Mum rounded the corner, headed for home. More often than not, children discovered that their freedom was short-lived, and their wisdom level was not quite ready for adulthood. To children home alone, one or two hours seemed to stretch into a day. Children lived for these brief periods of freedom-the promise of adulthood beckoning to them from behind a corner. Seuss’ classic first came out, American mothers would often leave younger children at home for an hour or two while they dashed off to the corner store to pick up a few groceries.
What kid wouldn’t wish that a mischievous creature would come into their dreary day with the promise of fun? What kid hasn’t discovered that such promised fun rarely turns out well-especially when a stranger is involved?ĭuring the late 1950s, when Dr. In The Cat in the Hat, Seuss creates a fantasy about a couple of bored children, left home alone for an hour or so on a rainy day, a setting that all kids can relate to.
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