Whoville Economy Essay

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" is a popular children's story intended for young boys and girls under the age of ten. The book features a green, irritable, displeased, cave-dwelling creature who lives atop a mountain in a fantasy world. The Grinch, along with his pet dog, observes from their cavernous home, the Christmas festivities of the neighboring town of Whoville. After 53 years, the creature chooses to finally put an end to the Who's Christmas celebrations, and make Christmas not come. The Grinch decides that in order to suppress the annoying holiday cheer of the Who's, he must sneak into all of their houses and steal their Christmas paraphernalia. He fashions a Santa-like jacket and hat and affixes a branch to the head of Max the dog, and sets off to Whoville to rid the surrounding areas of happiness and joy. The Grinch sneaks into young Cindy-Lou Who's house, steals the stockings, the presents, food, the Christmas tree, and even the log from the fire, but not before encountering the 2-year old Who. He lies to her saying that he will bring back the Christmas tree after repairing one of the lights. She goes back to bed, and the Grinch leaves to rob all the other houses. He takes his Christmas loot back to the top of Mt. Crumpit. When he reaches the top he hears the merry singing of all the Who's down in Whoville. Christmas did come after all. The Grinch couldn't stop Christmas from occurring, for the day was not about the gifts or the Christmas tree, but about the people and their company. Based upon the story, the socio-economic structure of Whoville is very complex. They appear to be conservative in some aspects but liberal in others. For starters, the community is very tight-knit, as noted in line 31 of the poem, "Every Who down in Whoville, the big and the small, would stand close together, with Christmas bells ringing. They'd stand hand-in-hand and the Who's would start singing!" There is a low crime rate, based upon the fact that Cindy-Lou Who did not hesitate to speak to the Grinch who unbeknownst to her, broke into her house to steal her yuletide cheer. Either crime is unheard of in Whoville or the toddler just thought he was safe to talk to because he was feigning the position of Santa Claus. The Who's also seem to be very much into commercialism and consumerism. All of these indicate that the Who's are conservative. However, with the commercialism, there is no mention of Jesus Christ, mangers or angels. This could be due to a large lack of faith or that their government forces their religious mementos inside of their own homes. Politically, they appear to be in an anarchic form of government. There is no mention of government and no mention of rules. They seem to not have any public safety nets because you don't hear about any Who's living off of the streets. There are also no mentions of religious figures or church services, so it is assumed that Whoville is a secular, tight-knit community. Whoville celebrates Christmas just for the joy of the holiday season, not to rejoice over the birth of Jesus Christ. Based off the poem from an economic stand-point, and the fact that currency is not mentioned for purchasing food or gifts, it can be concluded that the economy of Whoville is a form of bartering. The Who's barter for their goods and services because there is no official currency mentioned, as well as the fact that the Grinch does not steal the Who's money . In conclusion, based off of the poem "How the Grinch Stole Christmas " I would say that the Who's are very moderate but leaning slightly to the right. Their economic and social stances are conservative leaning, their political stances are more moderate, and their absence of the Christian faith during Christmastime leads me to assume that they are very open minded when it comes to the faiths of the other Who's. This leads me to assume they have some liberal stances on a few issues. Overall, the Who's are a very moderate, impossibly ideal, society.