Summary
The Cat in the Hat begins with two children, Sally and her unnamed brother, gloomily sitting beside each other and staring outside their window on a cold, wet day. The illustrations show a pet fish resting on a table next to the siblings, as well as a discarded tennis racket, several balls, and a bicycle on the floor. With the weather limiting their outdoor play opportunities, the brother—who is also the story's narrator—laments their boredom: “And I said, ‘How I wish/We had something to do! …. So all we could do was to/Sit!/Sit!/Sit!/Sit!/And we did not like it./Not one little bit" (7-8, 13-19).
After hearing a loud, sudden bump, the children are stunned by the entrance of a new visitor in their home: the Cat in the Hat, a cat with black and white fur who walks on two legs and appears to be as tall as a man. Carrying a light blue umbrella and dressed in white gloves, a white and red striped top hat, and a bright red bowtie, the Cat asks the children, “Why do you sit there like that?” and asserts that the children can have fun despite the gloomy weather (29). The Cat offers to show the children fun tricks and games, adding that their mother—who is away for the day—would not mind. Dumfounded, the children are unsure of how to respond to the Cat’s offer.
Suddenly, the fish leaps from his bowl and implores the children to send the Cat away, exclaiming, “He should not be here/When your mother is out!” (52-53). The Cat calmly disregards the fish’s protest and shows the children his first trick: balancing and twirling the fishbowl on his umbrella. The fish demands the Cat to stop at once, but the Cat’s trick only becomes more elaborate. With the fishbowl still propped on top of the umbrella, the Cat stands on a small ball with only one paw, adding a book in his other hand and a teacup on his hat for good measure.
The Cat continues to taunt the fish as he integrates a glass of milk, a tea cup, a toy ship, a cup, a cake, a fan, and more books into his balancing performance. As the Cat hops on top of the ball while holding the various household items, he begs the children for their attention so they can learn how to have fun: “Look at me NOW! / It is fun to have fun / But you have to know how” (89-91).
Soon enough, the Cat loses his balance and falls. All the items collapse to the floor, including the fish, who lands inside the teapot. Enraged, the fish condemns the Cat’s recklessness and again commands him to leave. Unfazed, the Cat refuses, claiming that he enjoys the children’s home and wants to show them more games.
Analysis
Possibly the most popular book in Dr. Seuss’s large and beloved body of work, The Cat in the Hat illustrates the importance of childhood literacy, questions the conventions of everyday adult life, and celebrates unbridled, boisterous fun. Unlike some of Seuss’s other books (such as The Lorax), The Cat in the Hat does not endorse a singular, obvious “moral message”; rather, it explores the contentious relationship between chaos and order—the book’s central theme—without fully affirming one and decrying the other. As we begin to see in these expository scenes, The Cat in the Hat ultimately promotes the coexistence of these seemingly opposing forces.
In the first couple of stanzas, Seuss paints a static, uninspired, and banal portrait of childhood: Sally and her brother are stuck indoors, staring aimlessly out of the window. Inhibited by the murky, rainy weather and discontent from “doing nothing at all,” the brother pleads for some form of amusement or escapism from their mundane domestic world: “How I wish/We had something to do!” (7-8, 12). The Cat’s arrival, punctuated by a loud “Bump!,” immediately wakes up the children, immersing them into a more fantastical, surreal world (21). The Cat’s smartly dressed, towering appearance starkly contrasts with the traditional image of the reserved, docile domestic cat. Likewise, he transgresses the social conventions present in a typical suburban household. The Cat promises that the children’s mother will “not mind” his games and tricks, yet his reckless actions “shook up [the children’s] house,” or subvert the standard behaviors expected of the children in their domestic sphere (41, 125).
The Cat primarily shows his rebellious streak during his balancing performance, an act that symbolizes the necessity of literacy learning and lively entertainment. Like the toy ship, cup, cake, and other household belongings, the Cat shows the children that books can be freely thrown around and played with—in other words, used as a source of fun. The pairing between childhood literacy and entertainment undermines the conventions of Dick and Jane primers, which were wildly popular at the time of The Cat in the Hat’s publication. Seuss publicly criticized Dick and Jane for over-emphasizing memorization—at the expense of imaginative plots, engaging characters, and phonics—in teaching children how to read. As a vehicle for Seuss’s mission to break the traditions of canonical children’s literature, the Cat offers a new, counter-approach to reading, depicting it as a freeing, playful, amusing act, rather than a burdensome, overly serious chore.
Seuss’s use of punctuation and word choice highlight the importance of free-spirited amusement. As the Cat balances, tosses, and juggles the household items, he begs the children to watch him: “ Look at me!/Look at me!/Look at me NOW!/It is fun to have fun/But you have to know how” (88-91). The profusion of exclamation points illustrates the Cat’s passion for his chaotic antics and adds to the exuberant, joyful tone of the story altogether.
Moreover, the repetition of the Cat’s pleas for the children to watch his balancing act underlines his commitment to teaching the children how to entertain themselves with ordinary items in their home, including books. Clearly, the Cat believes that the children, having been indoctrinated with a dull suburban upbringing, need an anarchic role model to shatter their previous conceptions of fun.
While the children do not verbally respond to the Cat’s balancing act, the illustrations show their transfixed, wide-eyed reactions. They appear intrigued and fascinated by the Cat, rather than downright afraid of him. This suggests that the implementation of new, radical ideas and practices about reading and amusement requires active participation from both the instigator—the Cat—and the receiver—Sally and her brother. Critically, though, Sally and her brother do not join in the Cat’s wild games—they mostly remain mesmerized spectators throughout the story. While the Cat’s rebelliousness certainly makes an impression on the children and jolts them out of their boredom, they do not show explicit signs of enjoyment, or even mere approval, of the Cat’s spectacles. Indeed, in a famous New Yorker piece about The Cat in the Hat, writer and scholar Louis Menand goes as far as to argue, "The children hate the cat. They take no joy in his stupid pet tricks, and they resent his attempt to distract them from what they really want to be doing, which is staring out the window for a sign of their mother's return. Next to that consummation, a cake on a rake is a pretty feeble entertainment.”
Whether you find Menand’s interpretation fair or exaggerated, it is clear that the children, at a minimum, are stuck between two clashing worlds: the Cat’s world of intuition and shenanigans and the fish’s world of rules and compliance. As a foil to the Cat, the fish symbolizes authority and domesticized conformity. He is committed to upholding and maintaining some semblance of normalcy in the home, which underlines his consistent disapproval of the Cat’s uninvited presence. Acting as the children’s guardian—better yet, their absent mother—the fish’s conflict with the Cat imbues the story with its central conflict: should the children abandon their principles to join the Cat, or should they demand the Cat to leave out of respect for the fish’s expectations?
