Simile as Plot
The plot takes it turn in the form of a simile. The Cat in the Hat is always trouble, of course, so it is just a matter of waiting for the trouble to come. And when he comes back to the home of the same two kids he caused trouble for before, it does not take him long to put together cake and a bathtub as the perfect place:
“I can’t have you in here
Eating cake like a pig!”
“It looked like pink ink.”
One interpretation of the story is that it is an allegory of the far of communist infiltration into American culture in the 1950’s and the backlash against it resulting in the blacklist and witch hunts. The result of the Cat eating cake in the tub is a pink stain caused by the frosting. The narrator makes a telling observation of this aftereffect and the reference to pink ink exists not just as a direct simile comparison, but a metaphor for accusations made against writers inserting communist ideology into their writings.
The Little Cats
The phrase “keep it under your hat” is an expression meaning to keep something secret. In the 1950’s the blacklist and anti-communist hysteria had made even the most oblique association with communist ideology something that had to be kept secret at all costs. The Cat in the Hat keeps a number of little cats under his hat who come out when he needs help. The result of their help is the complete transformation of the world outside the home into a pink wonderland. The little cats are a metaphor for the fear of communist networks and cells working to transform the purity of America into a communist wonderland.
Pop Guns
The little cats first try to get rid of the pink spots on the snow by using pop guns. They are good shots and have good guns, but they can’t kill spots. Just like conventional weaponry will not be able to stem the tide of communism from taking over the world. The failure of the pop guns are a metaphor for the anti-communist hysterical fear that communist imperialism won’t be stopped using the same military weaponry that was able to stop the Nazis.
The Voom
So if communism can’t be stopped by simply going to war and prevailing in battle, how can it be stopped? Just as the Voom is an inconceivable and indescribably powerful weapon capable of turning all the pink snow back to white, the only hope of saving the purity of democracy is the atomic bomb. Of course, the march of history has proven that both colored snow and the communist threat could also melt away simply by waiting long enough.
