Autonomy and Individualism
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! celebrates the power of individuals to take risks, rise from failure, and cultivate a meaningful life for themselves. The narrator repeatedly praises the boy’s skills and abilities, and claims that he has all the necessary ingredients for success: his “head full of brains” (his intelligence) and “shoes full of feet” (his mobility). According to the narrator, our basic intelligence and mobility affords us the power to create our paths and meet our life goals. To further illustrate the role of autonomy and self-sufficiency in our lives, the narrator declares, “You’re on your own. And you know what you know. / And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.” In other words, to the narrator, only we are responsible for the outcomes in our lives—nobody else.
In addition to praising the individual’s ability to succeed on their own terms, the book also endorses the individual's ability to gracefully handle difficult situations. The boy is repeatedly alone when facing setbacks—in The Waiting Place or ominous archway, for example—but he actively problem-solves and moves on from the challenge without any assistance or support from others. Through the illustration that the boy only needs his “two feet” and “brains” to succeed, the book celebrates individualism to navigate periods of satisfaction and tumult alike.
The Unpredictability of Life
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! chronicles the journey of life: the boy swiftly cycles through periods of triumph, stagnation, fear, and failure. For example, the boy’s joy and success arguably peak as he flies in the hot-air balloon, far surpassing his competitors. The boy’s abrupt crash into the tree, though, immediately undercuts this moment of exuberance and bliss—not only is the boy’s happiness erupted, but the failure of the crash catapults him into an unexpected “Slump.” The book’s plot follows this cycle of happiness and unexpected failure, fear, or adversity: the boy succeeds, fails, hesitantly re-takes control of life and moves on, finds success again, so on and so forth.
This cycle of happiness and disruption illustrates life’s fundamental unpredictability. As Seuss shows, happiness is not a constant; it is a fleeting emotion that is experienced in bursts, usually following or preceding unanticipated disruptions or difficulties. As long as we actively try to recover from our failures—rather than passively submit to a state of waiting à la The Waiting Place—we are well-equipped to manage life’s ever-changing circumstances and, in turn, experience the most fulfilling life possible.
The Necessity of Progress
Throughout the book, Seuss advocates for relentless perseverance and resilience, especially after enduring hardships. The illustrations associate rightward motion with progress and exploration, and leftward motion with regression. Whenever the boy encounters a frightening or seemingly hopeless situation, he often feels moments of paralysis—before ultimately and reliably making an active decision to march on in the “right” direction, prepared for the next stage of his journey.
The illustration on one of the final pages of the book exactly mirrors the first page: the boy is marching to the right with a calm, confident expression on his face. After experiencing the rollicking highs of the elephant-riding and hot-air-balloon-racing and brutal lows of The Waiting-Place-lounging, the boy is exactly where he started: moving forward, ready to explore. The parallelism between these two images embodies the necessity and cyclicality of progress. Regardless of life circumstances, we must consistently progress forward to unearth our fullest potential.
Exploration
When the boy ventures out of his town, he discovers a vast area of “wide open air” that represents infinite opportunity and possibility. The boy now has boundless ways to use his “head full of brains” and “shoes full of feet” to take him “Great Places.” However, we never have a clear idea of which “Great Places” the boy intends to visit; likewise, we never know the specific intentions or ambitions informing his journey.
Indeed, the narrator does not infuse the boy’s narrative arc with much specificity or detail. The lack of detail illuminates the necessity of consistent, open-ended exploration. Sometimes, we may not even have a specific goal we may want to reach, or a clear idea of our desired outcomes in life. Even if we do have firmly-set ambitions, life’s unpredictability and unexpected disruptions may complicate our paths to meet our objectives. In spite of the uncertainty and failure that can engulf our trajectories, we must exercise flexibility and open-mindedness in exploring life’s boundless opportunities. Seuss assures us that even if we are unsure of where our paths may take us, we are all destined for promising outcomes—as long as we consistently move forward and explore our choices.
