Does "Horton Hears a Who" Have Political Undertones?

Geisel was not shy about sharing his political views. Before he created Horton, he produced editorial cartoons for PM, a politically left-wing daily newspaper. Between 1941 and 1943, PM printed hundreds of Geisel's cartoons, which criticized isolationism, racism and anti-Semitism and gave voice to his hatred of Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese.

When Geisel turned to children's literature, he brought his politics with him. After visiting postwar Japan -- where the author felt himself towering over Japanese children -- Geisel wrote the Horton story as a criticism of discrimination. The hero's mantra -- "a person's a person, no matter how small" -- is about the importance of tolerance and the value of the individual. When a bird drops the dust speck into a field of poppies, the tiny citizens of Whoville must cope with major destruction as the Japanese did following the war. The story can also be considered a criticism of American isolationism. Horton and the people of Whoville are interdependent; each needs the other to survive. Other themes include the importance of staying loyal to a cause and the power of collective action. The people of Whoville ultimately survive because they rally together to make their voices heard.