...Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot… Baut the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville did not! The Grinch who is a bitter and cave dwelling creature, that lives on a snowy mountain called Mount Crumpits, although his age is undisclosed he looks to be in his 40’s (Criterion B) and does not have a job. He hatefully resents Christmas and the Whos from Whoville with great anger and occasionally pulls dangerous and harmful practical jokes on them. As a result no one likes or cares for him. He does not have any social relationship with his friends and family. The only social companion the Grinch has is his dog Max. Therefore because of these traits the Grinch can be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Due to his childhood...
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...PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY “How the Grinch stole Christmas” is a well-known and important poem in the literary canon. This poem simply talks about how the Grinch plans to ruin Christmas for the Whos in Who Ville, which then backfires and leads to self-realization for the Grinch. I decided to use the psychoanalytical theory to demonstrate the persona of the Grinch, and to unravel the possible reasons for his drive towards belligerence and destruction. To commence, it is obvious the Grinch has no interactions with the people of Who Ville, which explains his alienation. His noticeable difference amongst the other Whos was a result to his lack of conformity. His plan to ruin Christmas for the Whos was perhaps an indication of an unconscious desire for his own downfall. Watching the Whos surrounded with happiness brings about the Grinch’s decision to inject some trouble into the celebration. He anticipated his own feelings of displeasure and misery onto the Whos when he predicted that they would all cry "boo, who" upon discovering that they would not be celebrating Christmas. The Grinch's tendency toward cynicism, hostility, and aggression demonstrates his desire for destruction. His desire for destruction stems from the fact that he feels isolated. Thus, he tends to destroy the joy of the people in Who Ville, with the tendency of making them reach the same level of depression and misery he is in. The Grinch wanted the Whos' merry-making to come to an end, despite their needs and wants...
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...Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is solely based around men and their superiority to women. A story is told about a man, the Grinch, who wants to stop Christmas. The only female character in the story is two year-old Cindy-Lou Who – even the Grinch's dog is male. When she is introduced, Cindy-Lou is immediately described as little and tiny. This is suggestive that she is inferior to the Grinch and suggests that women, in general, are inferior to men. The phrase, "a small sound like the coo of a dove" is describing the noise Cindy-Lou made. This line is indicating that she is gentle and quiet and that all women are as well. Cindy-Lou then asks the Grinch, "Santy Claus, why,/Why are you taking our Christmas tree? WHY?" In response, the...
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...brewery business with financial hardship at times. ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ reflects and resists the dominant ideology of consumerism; “For Tomorrow, he knew, all the Who girls and boys/Would wake bright and early. They’d rush for their toys!” (10th rhyming couplet/19th line). The poem plays the idea of materialism and directly connects it with Christmas. The main character, the Grinch, is of the lower economic class and resists bourgeoisie. He does not celebrate Christmas, and purely hates the positive spirit that comes with it. The Grinch thought to himself that he will stop Christmas from coming if he steals all the items that were bought in preparation for Christmas. The poem is directed towards an audience of young children whose families celebrate Christmas. If a child whose family did not celebrate Christmas due to religion or finances, the child would not understand the poem and the feeling the author is trying to convey. The title of the poem also twiddles the idea of materialism because the Grinch who stole Christmas actually didn’t steal Christmas; he stole all the presents and food that was meant for Christmas day. No one can actually steal Christmas as if it is an object. Christmas is a holiday that is meant to be celebrated by Christians and throughout time people and companies have marketed Christmas as a consumer’s holiday. Works Cited Primary Source: Geisel, Seuss, Theodor. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Random House...
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...Feminist Critique: How The Grinch Stole Christmas How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a popular children's book by Dr. Seuss. This book is about a man - The Grinch - who hates Christmas and hatches a plan to 'stop it from coming' and then 'saves Christmas' after essentially being the reason the holiday needs to be saved in the first place. Like many of Dr. Seuss' books, there is an underlying theme or political statement, in this case the superiority of man. The man himself is a well known racist and bigot, due to his series of political cartoons which depicted racist images (Cross-Section of The World's Most Prosperous Department Store made for Judge Magazine, and his book The Sneetches for example), and antisemitism (The Sneetches is once again an example). To start things off in this particular case, there are barely any female characters. Every character - aside from Cindy-Lou Who - from the Grinch to his dog, Max, are male. To add insult to injury the only girl in the book, Cindy-Lou, is described with words like small and tiny and sounds like 'the coo of a dove'. Now this wouldn't be that big of an issue (considering Cindy-Lou is only two years old), if it wasn't for the fact that Cindy-Lou being the only girl in the story implies that all girls are suppposed to be small, tiny, sound like a dove and, essentially, are inferior when compared to men (Cindy-Lou compared to The Grinch). Dr. Seuss also uses Cindy-Lou to show that women are weak minded and easily manipulated while...
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...wonderful, awful idea! "I know just what to do!" The Crinch laughed in his throat. "I'll make a quick Disguise with a hat and a coat." And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great Crinchy Idea! With this great idea a genius I be a!" You're a mean one, Mr. Crinch. You really are a heel. You're as cuddly as a cactus. You're as charming as an eel. Mr. Crinch! You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel! You're a monster, Mr. Crinch. Your heart's an empty hole. Your brain is full of spiders. You've got garlic in your soul. Mr. Crinch! I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-seven-and-a-half foot pole! "All I need is a Vehicle." The Crinch looked around. But since Technology is scarce, there was none to be found. Did that stop the Grinch? Hah! The Grinch simply said, "If I can't find a car, I'll make one instead!" So he took his dog Mac, and he took some black thread. And he tied a big engine on top of his head. Then he loaded some bags and some old empty sacks ...
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...The poem “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is a perfect poem to demonstrate a archetypal critic. Firstly is the plot, the main character is set out on a quest to reach a desired goal (being to stop Christmas from coming) until he is able to reach the true goal which may be different then when he set out. The Grinch is said to be “Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown, At the warm lighted windows below in their town”(11-12). A cave is commonly associated with darkness, dampness and coldness, where Whoville is warm and lighted; this introduces the battle between darkness and light. In a similar sense the Who’s are deemed as merry, lighthearted people, “Who’s down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot,” (1); a constantly jolly town who have no notion of evil in their minds is distinguished as something “good”. However, “the Grinch hated Christmas”(2) and in stealing Christmas from the Who-families, distinguishing himself as “evil.” The Grinch is a feared outcast with the skin colour of green (in animation and illustration); green is often used to describe jealousy which fits this lonely character. He also has Max, the traditional loyal sidekick and comic relief; Cindy-Lou plays the child completely innocent and sees flaws in her perfect world enough to find the good in the most evil people. The idea of the Grinch’s heart being too small is also important because hearts in Western civilization symbolizes love or compassion, thus proving the Grinch’s evilness...
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...A timeless theme is a theme that has no beginning or end. It is relevant in all times. A great example of a timeless theme is social injustice. Social injustice is seen throughout society more and more as the rich keep becoming richer. There has always been a great divide between the rich and the poor, but the divide keeps growing. The people who are well off are selfish and greedy meaning they don’t care about anyone but themselves. The theme of social injustice can be witnessed throughout the Christmas Carol play, the book and in today's society. Although the play is set in a different time period, it still teaches important lessons. In the story, Ebenezer Scrooge starts by having no feelings for anything or anyone. In the end, he changes...
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...The Grinch’s Personality The movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a holiday favorite everywhere. It showcases the true meaning of Christmas, being happy and being together. The main character, the Grinch was originally from Whoville but has secluded himself up on the mountain because when he was a child he was mistreated by his peers. He was an angry spiteful who. He now has come into town and to try and ruin Christmas but when little Cindy Lou Who tries to welcome him back in, he goes through a personality change and his heart that was two sizes to small expands to two sizes too big. The Grinch’s personality can be evaluated by the Psychoanalytical, Humanistic, Trait, and Social-Cognitive Perspectives. The Psychoanalytical Perspective is based on the idea that personality comes from the unconscious and experiences when young. It was started by Sigmund Freud and he believed bits of the unconscious could slip out through dreams, jokes, or slips of the tongue. The Grinch was mean and angry about many things in his life, this part of his personality developed this way because when he was a child in school he was made fun of. The other kids were mean to him and so in turn he became mean and angry and this became ingrained in his unconscious and a part of his personality. The unconscious is divided into two parts, the Id and the SuperEgo, and both play different parts. The Id stores unconscious energy and is present at birth but the SuperEgo doesn’t develop until age 4 or 5...
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...Comparing Grendel and The Grinch. Can there be a lot of similarities between two totally different titles like Beowulf and How The Grinch Stole Christmas? Well there are plenty. For example, Grendel and The Grinch both are monsters. They both are isolated from the villages and attack at night. The stories even have a character that is considered a hero. Even though they have similarities, the differences show in the background, characters, and the conflict. The Danes and the Whos’ were both celebrating. The Danes were celebrating because of their hard fought victories against their enemies. They built a mead hall in which they drank and sang all night long. The Whos’, however, were celebrating because a magical time called Christmas. They...
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...Looking at the poem How The Grinch Stole Christmas through an archetypal lens is like looking at it in more of a mythical and creative way. The Grinch, who was an example of an archetype, was someone who hated Christmas and wanted to make everyone’s Christmas unenjoyably in WhoVille. The Grinch scared many Who’s in Who Ville due to his appearance. His green skin, his yellow teeth and ugly snarl made him different from everyone else. The Grinch feels alone and feels the need to take everyone’s happiness away from them because it’s unfair to him that he’s not happy as well. Later on in the poem, we meet Cindy Lou, who was an innocent little girl wondering why the Grinch was at her house taking her Christmas tree, she felt really sad because he was taking away everything they had. She was wondering why he was taking everything but he said that he just wanted to fix the tree, Cindy Lou who trusted the Grinch easily because she grew up in a friendly, trustworthy environment. The Grinch sneaks through the town to take everyone’s gifts so that he can have them for himself. When it is Christmas morning, the Grinch watched the Who’s in who Ville with the expectation of the Who’s to be sad. As he came closer, he realized that the presents and Christmas trees didn’t matter to them; they didn’t care about the materialistic things about Christmas "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. / Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!" (Suess, 1957) All the Who’s...
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...Archetypal Analysis: How the Grinch Stole Christmas The school of criticism that best interprets Dr. Suess’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is an archetypal analysis. The author frequently follows recurring symbols and themes found in numerous types of literature. Using several universal symbols, images, and character types, Dr. Suess has definitely created a poem filled with archetypal images and story patterns. Generally, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” follows the archetypal pattern in which the main character, the Grinch, leaves his home on a quest – specifically, to stop Christmas from coming in Whoville. During this journey, being in itself a popular story line in literature, the Grinch encounters several common archetypes that reflect particular actions or situations that represent human nature. “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is an obvious example of “Good versus Evil.” The “Who’s down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot,” (1); a happy, family-oriented town of individuals who had no notion of evil in their minds is distinguished as something “good”. However, “the Grinch hated Christmas”(2) and succeeds in stealing Christmas from the guiltless Who-families, distinguishing himself as “evil.” Additionally, the evil Grinch encounters Little Cindy-Lou Who, who asks him, “’Santy Claus, why,/Why are you taking our Christmas tree?” (74, 75) Her innocence reflects yet another archetypal character. She may also be considered a hero, as she predominantly exhibits goodness...
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...The Grinch is outcasts by of Whoville’s society. He was different from the rest of the Whoville people because of his physical appearance and his hate for Christmas. Even though it may seem like he did this to himself, but Augustus Maywho and his classmates’ fault when he was younger. He was humiliated in front of everyone and Martha May, the person he actually liked. He was too embarrassed to stay, so the Grinch ran away, never to be seen by The Whos again. Everyone describes the Grinch as evil and a monster, but The Who people don’t know him as well as they think. The Grinch did hate Christmas, but it wasn’t his fault. When he won the award for the Holiday Cheermister and went to the event he was having fun in his own way, The...
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...The poem, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” could be analysed by using a marxists theory approach to explain the true meaning of the poem. I believe this to be true because in the poem there are many references to the differences in social classes between the Who’s down in Whoville and the Grinch. In the poem it clear that the differences are both socio-economic, social and emotional. The Grinch lives in a cold, empty cave as is shown by these quoted lines; “But the Grinch who lived just North of Whoville (3-4)…Staring down from his cave….” (20). He has very few material possessions and even fewer friends or means of changing his lot in life. Even the things that he does own, like his shoes “…were too tight.” On the other hand, the Who’s live...
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...“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” provides evidence of Maxist Critisism. This lens focuses on social class, power, wealth and materialism. At the beginning of the story, the Grinch is shown as very cruel, unlike everyone in his community. By the end of the story, the Grinch realized that even without all the presents, and food, Christmas was still successful. The Grinch has been living away from everyone, and has been isolated as stated, “But the Grinch, Who lived just north of Whoville.” This may be because of his lack of wealth, that he wasn’t able to live with everyone else. Not only this, but the Grinch mentioned that Christmas requires materialistic things, which he doesn’t have. He mentioned that everyone was hanging mistletoes, and...
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