Dr. Seuss Books as a Textual
Genre
Throughout his books, Dr. Seuss uses a lot of unique conventions
within his books which makes his stories different from others. One of the main
conventions Dr. Seuss uses within his books is that he creates new animals and creatures
from his imagination. A few examples of this are The Sneetches, The Lorax and
The Grinch. In addition to creating new creatures, Dr. Seuss will also create new
words to go along with his stories. Seuss will usually do this to name his made-up
creatures, people, food and places throughout his stories. Another convention
that Dr. Seuss uses within his books is consistent rhyming. Throughout most of
his books, Seuss will rhyme most of his lines with another because it’s his
style of writing. A couple of examples of this are his books, “There’s a Wocket
in my Pocket”, “Green Eggs and Ham” and “Hop on Pop”. One convention that Dr.
Seuss uses that many other children’s books use is that he makes his cover and pages
of the book very colorful. Just by looking at some of the covers of his books
you can tell that he wanted them to stand out. Another convention that Dr. Seuss
uses within his books is that most of the time the main character is an animal
or a creature. Instead of Dr. Seuss books revolving around humans, Dr. Seuss
will often have animals or even creatures he made up be the main character or protagonist
of his stories. A couple of examples of an animal or creature being the main
character are Dr. Seuss books, “The Cat in the Hat”, “Horton Hears a Who” and “Yertle
the Turtle”. The two final conventions throughout Dr. Seuss books I will be
talking about is the audience and the purpose. Throughout all his books, Dr.
Seuss targets children as his audience. Dr. Seuss writes his books knowing that
children are going to read them to themselves or have it read to them by
someone else. Because Dr. Seuss knows his audience is children he makes his
books easy to read by using small words and rhyming throughout his stories. Dr.
Seuss will also make up fun words and creatures which help define the purpose
of his books which is to entertain. The reason why Dr. Seuss uses all of these unique
conventions in his books is to make sure that the reader is entertained and has
fun while reading his books.
