The Sneetches and Other Stories is a young children’s book written in 1961 by the famous children’s author, Dr. Seuss.
The story revolves around a group of Seussian creatures, known as Sneetches, as they compete with each other to be the most superior group. Some Sneetches are born with a green star on their stomachs whilst others aren’t – this causes a divide between the Sneetches as a whole. Things take a turn for the worse when businessman Sylvester McBean approaches the Sneetches and offers to add on or remove stars from the Sneetches.
The story revolves around the idea of accepting people as they are born. The Sneetches with the stars deliberately exclude and ostracize the others throughout the course of the story. This propels the unfortunate Sneetches to take drastic measures and make changes to themselves externally, by adding on stars. However, this does not make as much a difference as hoped and eventually the Sneetches realize that it is better to accept people for how they are.
Thus, Seuss' message to young readers is to simply be themselves. Many young people are prone to negative influences from others, and Seuss seems to be advocating against this. Instead, he promotes the idea of self-love and the idea that beauty is internal.
