The Encounter
Dr. Seuss is so easy to read not just because of the sing-song rhythms of his poetry, but because it is always so comfortingly personal. “The Sneetches” is about understanding and cooperation, The Cat in the Hat is about personal responsibility, and the story that we will look at now, The Zax, seems to be a cautionary tale about the price of irrational stubbornness (or about irrationality in general). The tale is simplicity itself. It begins with an encounter in the desert.
What is strange about this picture is the seeming inevitability with which these two Zaxes are drawn to each other. It’s a big desert, but apparently there is only one path though it. 
So the argument ensues, with each Zax appealing to his traditions and education. “For I live by a rule/that I learned as a boy back in South-Going School./Never Budge! That’s my rule. Never budge in the least! /Not an inch to the West! Not an inch to the East!“
So the argument ensues, with each Zax appealing to his traditions and education. “For I live by a rule/that I learned as a boy back in South-Going School./Never Budge! That’s my rule. Never budge in the least! /Not an inch to the West! Not an inch to the East!“Finally — and this this is the “lesson” that the story imparts — the world just expands around them, ignoring them and leaving them in this fruitless deadlock. (more…)