The Grinch

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas

How could anyone--how could I--not love the Grinch? I have a section of my heart reserved for villains: for Long John Silver, for Captain Hook, for the Wicked Witches of East and West (I am not prejudiced on the compass points or on wickedness). And finally, for my own tribe of miscreants: Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Daffy Duck, etc., etc... You can say that a Grinch wants to steal Christmas, and you don’t need to know anything more about him--he is just a villainous Grinch who hates Christmas. A human being cannot be that simple. If a human villain--an old man, for example--wanted to steal Christmas, we would have to go deeper into the character, to find out whether he hated Christmas because of his age, because he lived alone on a mountain, or because he loathed kids. What we do shamefully recognize, of course, is that we are all a bit like the Grinch, for we all hate Christmas a little. Or a lot. Even children hate Christmas a little. As a child you worry that your brother or sister might be given better presents, and you rarely receive all you asked for. And when it’s all over, it’s worse--there’s the dull work of dismantling the tree, and above all there is the endless thank-you letters to write. My personal problem was forgetting what anybody had given me, and I would write to my grand-mother complimenting her on knowing my size, when she had given me a jackknife. Ted Geisel had no children, and he shared the Grinch’s grumpiness about Christmas--all those kids racing around making noise.