Summary
The Cat rushes out of Sally and her brother’s home, only to return immediately with a large, red, wooden box. The Cat stands on top of the box and bows to Sally and her brother. While the intrigued children intently examine the box, the Cat tells the children that they are about to meet Thing 1 and Thing 2, two small, identical creatures with poofy blue hair who simply want to have fun. Wearing red bodysuits labeled with their names (“Thing 1 and Thing 2”), the Things swiftly emerge from the box and shake Sally and her brother’s hands.
Enraged, the fish again argues that the children should not allow uninvited visitors while their mother is away. The Cat lifts the fish—who is still contained in a teapot—and claims that the Things are “Oh so tame!/They have come here to play/They will give you some fun/On this wet, wet, wet, day” (188-191).
The Things start flying kites inside the house to the fish’s dismay. The Things maniacally run down the hall, bumping their kites on the wall along the way. The children follow the Things as light fixtures, framed photographs, and vases fall to the floor. Soon, the Things make it to the children’s mother’s bedroom, and the mother's new polka-dot gown gets caught in the kite, while her vanity items—a mirror, perfume bottle, and airbrush—topple over.
The boy becomes increasingly agitated as the Things’ kite-flying wrecks more havoc in the house, finally announcing “I do NOT like the way that they play/If Mother could see this,/Oh, what would she say!” (223-225). Now caught on the kite string, the fish suddenly spots the children’s mother, wearing a red dress and sophisticated black heels, outside the house’s window. The fish panics, crying “Oh what will she do to us?/What will she say?/Oh, she will not like it/To find us this way” (230-33). Unfazed, the Things continue to play with their kites, creating widespread damage all around the house. Now outside of the teapot, the fish orders the children to act fast and “get rid of” the Things immediately (240).
Determined, the boy successfully captures the Things with a butterfly net. Sally smiles at her brother’s victory, and the Cat—who has been conspicuously absent ever since the Things started flying their kites—has a concerned, guilty expression on his face. The boy demands the Cat to follow his orders and take the Things away, to which the disappointed Cat replies, “You did not like our game …/O dear./What a shame!/What a shame/ What a shame!” (257-261). The cat sadly locks the Things in the box and walks out the front door.
The fish commends the children for successfully getting the Cat and the Things to leave, but reminds them that they have to clean up the house—now in a state of complete disorder and chaos—before their mother comes home. Just as the fish and children begin to panic, the Cat is back—this time, with a cleaning motor vehicle that has gloved hands extending from its sides. As the hands begin to dust all the items and neatly place them back in their original spot, the Cat proudly declares, “I always pick up all my playthings!” (279). After the Cat and his vehicle finish cleaning, he tips his hat and bids farewell to the children and the fish, who all look relieved and satisfied.
The children are back where they started at the beginning of the book—sitting in their chairs, gazing outside the window. Their mother asks, “Did you have any fun?/Tell me. What did you do?” to the children, who are unsure if they should tell the truth about their surreal, fantastical day (297-298). In his closing remarks, the boy poses a question to the audience: “Now what SHOULD we do?/Well .../What would YOU do/If your mother asked YOU?” (304-307).
Analysis
As soon as the Cat releases Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the box, the mischief in the house drastically escalates to the horror of the fish, Sally, and the boy. The children passively follow the Things as they fly their kites around the house and leave each room or hallway in a state of disarray. Where the Cat’s tricks intrigue Sally and her brother, the Things’ crazed mayhem worries them. Channeling the concerns of the rule-abiding Fish, the boy loudly expresses disapproval toward the Things’ antics: “I do NOT like the way that they play!/If Mother could see this,/Oh, what would she say!” (223-225).
However, in spite of these verbal protests, the boy and Sally hesitate to actively try to stop the Things from inflicting more damage to the house. On top of this, the Cat—the one character who seems capable of wielding some control over the Things—is conspicuously absent in these scenes, leaving the children all the more desperate. The Cat’s mysterious and sudden departure ultimately forces the children to spring into action and capture the Things when they spot their mother approaching the front door of their house. We are left to wonder, then, if the Cat’s absence was an intentional act designed to prompt the children to independently confront and challenge the frenzy in their home.
Whether or not the Cat planned his absence, the children learn several new skills by the end of the story: how to use common items for fun and imaginative purposes, how to defend and speak up for oneself, and how to problem-solve. Indeed, after capturing the Things and orchestrating a successful defense of his home, the boy gains confidence and even asserts his authority over the Cat: “Now you do as I say./You Pack up those Things/And you take them away!” (153-155). Here, the boy’s fervent demands starkly contrast with his early passive interactions with the Cat—in fact, this is the first time the boy verbally addresses the Cat altogether. In other words, the Cat’s visit has spurred the boy’s narrative arc from a timid and bored boy to an assured defender of his home.
The closing events thus deepen the characterization of the Cat: his desire to teach the children new skills and ideas surpasses his impulsive desire to create sheer chaos. Up until these final scenes, Seuss has portrayed the Cat as a rebellious anti-authority rule-breaker who transgresses the behavioral expectations enforced in the children’s home. However, his major contribution to the clean-up effort undercuts his penchant for shenanigans and nonconformity. The boy methodically narrates each of the Cat’s and his vehicle’s cleaning actions: “He picked up the cake,/And the rake, and the gown,/And the milk, and the strings,/And the books, and the dish” (185-188). Here, the boy’s methodical repetition of “and the”—followed by the calling out of individual household items—highlights the Cat’s critical role in restoring order to the household. In claiming “I always pick up all my playthings,” the Cat shows respect for one of the most non-negotiable rules embedded in the domestic sphere: cleaning up and taking responsibility for one’s mess (179).
A paradoxical character, the Cat is responsible for inciting the anarchical madness in the house, but also for endorsing the necessity of certain domestic rules and traditions. As the Cat’s clean-up actions ultimately illustrate, breaking the rules can lead to unneeded stress and burdens in addition to fun and spontaneity. By considering the respective upsides and downsides of chaos and order, The Cat in the Hat does not ultimately subscribe to an anarchic or conformist worldview. Instead, the book promotes the coinciding of both of these two seemingly opposing forces. Children must challenge rules to discover their individuality, expose themselves to new and exciting ideas, and ignite their zest for life—but they also must conform to social norms to comfortably and meaningfully function in society. In other words, children must question the status quo, but not deviate too far from it.
The ending of the book further considers the themes of compliance and subversion. After restoring order in the house, Sally and her brother end the book exactly as they started: sitting in their chairs, staring outside the window, awaiting their mother’s return. Seuss uses the boy's narration to further connect the children’s positions at the beginning and ending of the book. In the opening stanza, the boy explains, "I sat there with Sally./We sat there we two" (5-6). In one of the final stanzas, he explains, “Then our mother came in/And she said to us two” (295-296). The parallelism and repetition apparent in these two lines emphasize the unity between the siblings, as well as draws extra attention to the household’s return to its original, undisturbed, mundane state. Sally and the boy are safe; the house is clean; there is no evidence of the chaos that previously ensued. The imagery of Sally and the boy returning to their chairs produces an exaggerated comedic effect, as it shows the children’s ability to instantaneously return to an automated, “autopilot” state as well-mannered, compliant children, as if none of the outlandish events in the book ever happened.
However, despite the children and house’s intact, upright, and innocent appearance, we know the chaos has not totally lulled. In fact, Seuss introduces a new conflict at the ending of the book: what should the children tell their mother after she asks them how they spent their day? Should they tell the truth—a story so fantastical and subversive that their mother may doubt its truthfulness? Or should they lie and tell a more ordinary story that she may accept as reality? In the final lines of the book, the boy confrontationally poses this question to readers: "What would YOU do/ If your mother asked YOU?" (306-307).
With the capitalized “YOU” and “SHOULD,” Seuss shows his determination to grab our attention and urges us to consider a universal predicament in childhood: the desire to be truthful vs. the desire not to be punished by an authority figure. By directly implicating readers in the text and not including the boy’s response to his mother's inquiry, Seuss again presents the act of reading as one requiring active participation and critical thinking from both the author and the reader. While encouraging the audience to draw their own conclusions from the text, he again subverts the traditions of the Dick and Jane primers, which demanded passive consumption and memorization from young readers. In doing so, Seuss extends one of The Cat in the Hat’s most critical themes—the necessity of questioning the existing social order—outside the text and into “real life.” This underlines the enduring appeal of The Cat in the Hat: Seuss encourages and empowers us to explore our relationship to authority and rules—just like Sally and her brother.
