Emily Schmeiser

Bell: 4a
Date: 5/18/15

Cold War v. The Butter Battle Book

The Cold War, also known as the Arms Race was a war involving The United States
and Russia (U.S.S.R). It turned into a time period involving the competition for
success in the matter of who could build the bigger weapon. In Seusss book the
Butter Battle Book one society (the Yooks) believed that butter should be spread on
the top of bread, whereas the other side (the Zooks) believed butter should be
spread on the bottom of the bread. The point of view of the story from a Yook, so
our opinion on the matter would have been biased because in reading the story we
are being forced to agree with that the Yooks are the civil ones. However after
listening to the book I concluded that both sides are to blame. We are shown that
the Yooks have a president which alludes to Americas president during the
period, Eisenhower. The Cold War was a result of the U.S.S.R and the United States
not agreeing with each others beliefs, Seuss creates a conflict between the Yooks
and Zooks and this is a main reason why it is easy to allude this story to The Arms
Race. The Chief of the Yooks is represented as a nice and understanding man
because every time the narrator fails to attack the Zooks he comes back to the
chief and he dos not get angry he just builds him another contraption to try.
However the way the chief portrays his character in the book I felt as if he was only
being nice because he knew that the narrator was the only one who would continue
to test the weapons, which infers that Seuss believes that the American government
was just weapon/power hungry. Seuss tells the story from Americas viewpoint and

at the end of the story the Yooks and Zooks both come up with the greater
weapon which is a very powerful bomb. Even though Seuss is alluding to The Cold
War the last scene reminds me of WWII when America dropped the bomb on
Hiroshima.