The Sneetches and Other Stories Literary Elements

Children’s illustrated rhymed verse

Various. Scary woods in “What I was Scared of?” The McCave home in “Too Many Daves.” The prairie of Prax in both present-day and several years in the past in “The Zax.” The land of “The Sneetches.” All settings are imaginative “Seussian” landscapes.

All of the stories are told by an objective third-person narrator with the exception of “What was I Scared of?” which is narrated in the first-person by the protagonist.

Only “What was I Scared Of?” features a demonstrable tone and mood. The other stories are characterized by a slightly ironic tone, but feature no equally discernible mood. By contrast, “What was I Scared Of?” combines text and illustration to produce a somewhat sinister mood while the narration creates a tone of mystery and dread.

Protagonist: the scared narrator of “What was I Afraid Of?” and, eventually, the seeming antagonist of the empty pants which scares him. Antagonist: The only character in the book that can be termed an outright antagonist is Sylvester McMonkey McBean who takes advantage of the Sneetches prejudicial views toward each other for his own financial gain.

The primary conflict of the book is, of course, that existing between the Star-Belly Sneetches and the Plain Belly Sneetches. However, it is the conflict between the North-Going Zax and the South-Going Zax which goes unresolved. The narrator of “What was I Afraid Of?” seems to be in conflict with the empty pants, but the conflict of this story actually turns out to be of the “man versus man” variety as the real battle is between the two characters and their fear of the unknown.

In keeping with the overall ambiguity of the stories, even though Sylvester McMonkey McBean is the closest thing to an outright antagonist, ultimately even his own selfish exploitation of the Sneetches winds up having the positive effect of creating a climax in which all the Sneetches finally learn to accept each other equally without regard for does and who doesn’t have stars on their belly. Much the same lesson is learned in “What was I Afraid Of?” The other two stories, “Too Many Daves” and “The Zax” both notably come to a conclusion without a climax as the characters remains exactly in the same state at the end as they at the beginning.

Ironic foreshadowing is situated on the very first page of “What was I Afraid Of?” when the narrator asserts “I have never been afraid of anything.” Throughout the book he will continue to insist he is not afraid despite evidence clearly to the contrary. Only by the end of the story will the foreshadowed bravery prove true.

Mrs. McCave thinks of the twenty-three alternatives she might have chosen to name her kids instead of naming all them Dave. This is conveyed through fourteen lines of verse with twenty-three different unique and funny names. The long passage ends on an example of understatement regarding her decision not to use those names, but instead call them all Dave: “But she didn’t do it. And now it’s too late.”

Very simple allusions are made to Biblical history and actual history in the names which Mrs. McCaves lists as alternative possibilities she wishes she’d considered before naming all her kids Dave. Though not spell in the usual way, “Shadrack” alludes to one of the sons of Noah. “Buffalo Bill” alludes to the show business nom de plume adopted by Bill Cody.

The dominant imagery throughout the book is the demonstration of unwise decision-making. The Sneetches who were initially so proud of having stars on their bellies spend all their money using McBean’s machines in a never-ending cycle of having them removed and then put on again and then removed again. The two characters who stand off against each in “The Zax” could quite easily have gone their merry way by merely taking one step to the right, but by the end have waited so long they no longer even have that choice. Mrs. McCave is shown to be sadly committed to the consequences of her decision to give all her kids the same name. The repetition of bad decisions becomes imagery which leads inexorably to the final story in which the cycle is finally ended when the two characters overcome their mutual fear and reach out to each other without the interference of an interloper.

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The device of parallelism is essential to the entire section of “Too Many Daves” in which the names that the mother wishes she had used are listed. For example: “And one of them Sneepy. And one Weepy Weed. And one Paris Garters. And one Harris Tweed”

“Meta” means change and “onyma” means name so the meaning of “metonomy” is quite literally to call one thing by a different name. This occurs in “The Sneetches” when Sylvester McMonkey McBean introduces himself to the creatures by saying “I’m the Fix-It-Up Chappie.” The narrator will go on to expand this metonym so that it covers not just McBean’s identity, but his machinery and system of processing changes to the bellies of the Sneetches both to produce and then remove stars.

At first the antagonist of “What was I Scared Of?” seems to be the pair of pale green pants which the narrator first sees standing straight up in the air as if being worn by someone. The pants later turn out to be a co-antagonist engaged in conflict with the fear inside. No real explanation is ever given as how a pair of green pants can ride a bike, run through the forest, row a boat or do anything else that it should not be able to do. It is simply an example of personification attributing human qualities to what appears to otherwise be nothing but what should be just an inanimate object.