The Cat In The Hat Is Literature.

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become. -C. S. Lewis (Miner, and Rawson 36)

Many people would agree that books such as Crime and Punishment, Catcher In The Rye , and The Great Gatsb y, are literature, but many people would be unable to explain why they are considered so. The term literature often gets confused, but many would agree that not every work of fiction constitutes a work of literature. One such work that may not be commonly regarded as such is The Cat in the Hat. A large majority of people in the United States grew up reading the books of Dr. Suess, and many would call it just a silly childrens book. But The Cat in the Hat has real literary merit, other than as the

beginning of reading for many people. The relevant dictionary definition of literature is: writings in prose or ve rse; es peciall y: writings having ex cellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest (Merriam -Webster). And Jim Mayer describes a prototype are written texts, are marked by careful use of lang uage are in a literary genre, are read aestheticall y (Meyer 2-3). So obviously even experts are uncertain about what is, and what is not literature. However the most inclusive and simple definitions focus on the audience rather than the tome itself. R.S. Gwynn has three classifications that will also serve as the basis for this essay. These being: Experience, Experiment, and Expand. (Gwynn 2 -3) Experience refers to the experience gained b y reading. In the case of The Cat in the Hat the experience is one of discovery and empathy. The new experience of the strange cat coming into the house unannounced, the wild antics of thing one and thing two, and an impressive juggling act all serve to give the reader an experience that they could not otherwise gain on real life. As for empathy, the target readers are children, just like the narrator and his sister in the book. And they can have an empathetic experience reading about the narrator and his sister being bored inside while it is raining outside, or th e fear

of parental punishment garnered from the cats destruction. A key element of literature is the capacity to be analyzed and misunderstood. And man y h ave done so. Some even ana l yz e it to the extent of likening the relationship of the cat and the fish to that of C h r i s t a n d t h e d e v i l ( LeBeau). The second criterion of literature is of course experiment. The Cat in the Hat was created as an experiment. Friend of Theodore Geisel (Dr. Suesses real name), director of Houghton Mifflins education division William Ellsworth Spaulding presented the challenge that became The Cat in the Hat, as a response to what he deemed were deplorably boring and predictable children's early reading books. ("1957 Time Capsule") He believed that the books available to children in schools showed children in an unrealistic way. And that the books used in schools should be more like the ones available at book stores. He presented Suess with a list of 348 words to choose from and Dr. Suess used 235 of them, 221 of them being only one s yllable words. The entire book follows a strict anapestic tetrameter. ("1957 Time Capsule") Through re ading a nd anal yz in g liter ature we ex pand our minds and enrich our lives. The most important thing about The Cat in the Hat, is that unlike the dull easy reader books of its day, which

portrayed unrealistic children do ing boring things, is that it gave children a chance to think. The surreality of the situation forces a reader to consider things like the possibility of a giant cat entering through your front door and causing trouble, the origins of thing one and thing two, and the convenience of having a vehicle with arms to clean up any mess you could create. And then the book probes the young readers mind again with the final question: Should we tell her about it? What should we do? Well What would you do if your mother asked you? (Suess 61) As the epigraph of this essay states, literature adds to reality, and The Cat in the Hat has indeed forced itself upon reality. The cats trademark striped top hat has become, not only a s ymbol for children's reading, but all books an d the act of reading in general. It has sold over eleven million copies and been reprinted in twelve languages. The Cat in the Hat is a children's book, but it is more than that, and deserves to be called literature. Like all works of literature, it meets the three pillars of literature: Experience, Experiment, and Expand and this elevates it to the same level as more mature books. That is why I proudly display a cop y between the Chicago st yle guide and The Complete Works Of Shakespeare on my book shelf.