Short-Sighted Thinking
Thinking only in the short term takes a beating in the stories contained in this volume. The Sneetches can only see the value of having stars on their bellies or not and wind up getting financially fleeced by a sales shark who takes advantage of the short-sightedness of both kinds of Sneetches. The two Zaxes are so obsessed and overcome by their zealously short-sighted stubbornness to avoid moving out of the other’s path they wind up living useless lives while the world keeps going on around them. Mrs. McCave for some bizarre reason clings to her short-sighted decision to stick with naming every new kid “Dave” until, inevitably, she is stuck with “Too Many Daves” and no way to fix it. Even the sweet-tempered narrator of “What was I Scared of?” winds up having his life controlled—for a while—by his short-sighted fear of the unknown.
The Other
“The Other” appears in various guises in the stories. For the Star-Belly Sneetches, those with bare bellies are the Other and vice versa and each represents for another an absolutely baseless distinction of class and worth. The baselessness is proved in the end by the inability for either to recognize those who were originally a member of the other class once stars can be swapped on and off. For the North-Going Zax, the South-Going Zax exists as the Other and, again, vice-versa. That both make exactly the same decision not to do the one little thing which could have allow their lives to find meaning proves the emptiness of this prejudice. The narrator is absolutely terrified of the strangeness of the pants that move without a body only to learn that the pants with a body was equally terrified of him because of his strangeness. Each of these three stories present a conflict between two opposing entities both viewing another as the Other who are ultimately revealed to be exactly the same at a fundamental existential level.
Ignoring the Solution
Every single story presents a situation in which there occurred at one moment in time, at least, a point at which a very simple solution to the problem is possible, but ignored. The Plain-Belly Sneetches are discriminated against by not being invited to play ball on the beach or take part in weenie roasts with those that have stars. This treatment goes on “year after year” when a very simple solution is staring the plain-bellies right in the face: get their own balls and their own frankfurters and have their own parties. As the plot plays out, it becomes clear that the superiority of the Star-Belly Sneetches is based not on what they have, but what the others do not. As long as the others did not play ball and roast frankfurters, they could enjoy their superior status. The ignored solutions to the problems facing the Zax standoff, a mother naming all her kids Dave and the fear of an empty pair of pants should be immediately obvious.
