A Ripple of Change

Today, I dusted off my aged copy of the wonderful book Yertle the Turtle  by Dr. Seuss. Yertle the Turtle is the moving story of the king of the turtles, a turtle named Yertle, who wants to have power over everyone. Yertle forces all of the turtles that he rules over to stack themselves on top of each other, despite their intense  pain. Yertle does this so that he will have the most power. The turtles complain about their pain, but Yertle does not care about anything but his own power. Finally, one turtle at the bottom of the stack, named Mack, let out a huge burp. Then, the turtle stack came falling down. All the turtles were finally free, but Yertle went on to live a sad, lonely life. I believe that the message of this book is that some people will try to rule over everyone else, and they don't care what the people below them think. It only takes one person's action to put things where they should be.

Some people, in life, just want power. Yertle is a metaphor for these people. Yertle says, "'This throne that I sit on is too, too low down. It ought to be higher!' he said with a frown. 'If I could sit high, how much greater I'd be! What a king! I'd be ruler of all I could see!'" Yertle just wants his throne to be higher and higher. Some leaders are like this. They just want more power, so that they can do whatever they want.

These awful leaders who just want power don't care what people below them feel about the situation. When Mack, the turtle at the bottom of the stack, complains about his back, knees, and arms aching, Yertle says, "'I'm king, and you're only a turtle named Mack. You stay in your place while I sit here and rule.'" Mack is a metaphor for the minorities in society, the people who don't really have a say in what happens.These people are constantly being shushed, just because the people like Yertle who need power don't care. The minorities in society should have a say!

Sometimes, it only takes one person's action to cause a ripple of change. Finally, Mack gets fed up with being ignored. "And that plain little lad got a little bit mad/And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing. He burped! And his burp shook the throne of the king!" In this story, Mack's little burp sent the whole awful tower of power to the ground. Mack's burp is a metaphor for social action. When minorites in an unfair society take action, it can shake up the whole system of bad power. The burp could represent a petition, a rally, a fundraiser, or even a protest similar to Occupy Wall Street. Mack did something small, but it was something that really shook up the king's whole throne!

In conclusion, each character in Yertle the Turtle represents a group of people in society. Even a burp represents social action! I admire Dr. Seuss for putting such an important message in a toddler's book. The story line is a metaphor for someone having dictatorship over a whole group of people and not caring about the needs of the people they ruled over. Then, one person made a big difference, just by doing something small. This shows that when things are bad in society, one person should just make one tiny change, and then everyone's lives could be changed for the better.