A Transformative Biblical Encounter: The Garden of Eden in <i>How the Grinch Stole Christmas</i>

  • Julia Pond Illinois State University

Abstract

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one Seuss story that receives considerable critical attention with regards to its message of morality. Most studies on it, however, finds that Seuss subtly skirted the religious implications of the widely celebrated holiday, instead focusing on commercialism, the community, and the thankfulness that Christmas promotes. But although How the Grinch Stole Christmas does not contain any overtly Christian messages, the book, extended and intensified by the animated television special, does employ Biblical imagery. This imagery serves to characterize the Grinch and the Whos and to create parallelism between Seuss’s Christmas story and the Book of Genesis story of the loss of innocence.

Author Biography

Julia Pond, Illinois State University
Javid Beagley is Lecturer in Children's Literature and Literacy at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, Victoria, Australia, where he teaches units in Genres, History, Australian and Post-colonial children's literature. He has previously taught in secondary schools, and has been a school and university librarian.
Section
Emerging Voices