The Cat in the Hat Cat in the Hat" is the book that made Dr. Seuss famous. Without "The Cat", Seuss would have remained a minor light in the history of children's literature." Donald Pease concurs, writing, ""The Cat in the Hat" is the classic in the archive of Dr. Seuss stories for which it serves as a cornerstone and a linchpin. Before writing it Geisel was better known for the 'Quick, Henry, the Flit!' ad campaign than for his nine children's books." The publication and popularity of the book thrust Geisel into the center of the United States literacy debate, what Pease called "the
The Cat in the Hat portrays the fish as a kind of ever-nagging superego, the embodiment of utterly conventionalized morality." Philip Nel notes that other critics have also compared the fish to the superego. Anna Quindlen called the Cat "pure id" and marked the children, as mediators between the Cat and the fish, as the ego. Mensch and Freeman, however, argue that the Cat shows elements of both id and ego. In her analysis of the fish, MacDonald asserts that it represents the voice of the children's absent mother. Its conflict with the Cat, not only over the Cat's uninvited presence but also their inherent