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Honors Book Review
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
By Dr. Seuss
This book is one of the best embodiments of time that there is. There is a small plot for those who do read it that involves a voyage, if you will, around a place in which there live many myriad life forms. The book goes on and explains many of them while repeating that ‘funny things are everywhere’. This book is very fitting for smaller children who like the rhymes and pictures and even better for those who wish to analyze it. It has much to do with time. This book review is more of a book analysis because the book was far too far reaching in its emphasis to be done in a review.
The narrator of the story is an unknown force who oftentimes refers to itself in the collective ‘we’. After analyzing the book, it appears that this thing (for lack of a better word) is an unseen force that has been here since the beginning of time, and has witnessed every event that has taken place. Another indication that the narrator is not human is the references to the impossible. The kite flying in bed, walking with ten cats on the head. This is impossible for us, yet the narrator claims to have done it. This narrator tells of the history of the world and human perceptions of time.
The first few pages of the book talk of the many different kinds of ‘fishes’ there are. These actually symbolize the different forms of life that were on the planet since its creation, and about how they were all very different. The voice also tells of evolution by giving examples of an eleven-fingered man. It also puts forth this theory by comparing its one hump wump to another’s ‘seven hump wump’.
After this the book talks of the growing awareness of logic and science. This is about Ned in the uncomfortable bed. Ned represents the awareness, while the bed represents the social constricts. In this case the social constricts may have been government or church or something else. The book also points out the people’s reliance on the technology of the day. This technology is labeled as Mike, and the human trek is the hills, which Mike helps us up.
The narrator also brings us to pre-renaissance times by using the ‘Nook’s Hook Cook Book’. The nook represents humans as a whole and the book represents science and deeper understanding. The Nook cannot read and therefore cannot cook. This is like humans were, we could not understand science and were thus unable to use it. Soon after this the Narrator tells of how we eventually harnessed science. It does this by talking of the Zans that opens Cans. The cans are our questions about the world and the Zans is science.
The narrator talks about Time when it brings up the Yink that drinks ink and the Yop that hops. The Yink is the subject of time. The ink that it drinks is the representation of the amount of energy that we have put forth towards this subject of time. It just drinks and drinks the Ink does the Yink. The Yop that is continually hopping is time itself. It never stops moving always going. The narrator shows this quite well.
This book sums up quite nicely the history of the earth and of human kind. It is entertaining to read and also entertaining to analyze. This book mentions ever possible aspect of time, such as deep time(the walking sheep), physical time(boxing with a Gox) and others. It is an excellent book for this type of class. In closing, the book says it best about eternal time:
Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
Every day,
From here to there,
Funny things are everywhere.