The Cat in the Hat use of the term "cat" to refer to jazz musicians. According to Nel, "Even as [Geisel] wrote books designed to challenge prejudice, he never fully shed the cultural assumptions he grew up with, and was likely unaware of the ways in which his visual imagination replicated the racial ideologies he consciously sought to reject." Geisel once called the fish "my version of Cotton Mather", the Puritan moralist who advised the prosecutors during the Salem witch trials. Betty Mensch and Alan Freeman support this view, writing, "Drawing on old Christian symbolism (the fish was an ancient sign of Christianity) Dr. Seuss
The Cat in the Hat (film) Larry Quinn, much to Conrad's dismay and disgruntlement because Larry is constantly on the lookout for any mischief Conrad may be up to as he wants nothing more than to send him away to military school as Conrad has earned the reputation of "hot-headed troublemaker". Once Joan leaves, Sally and Conrad meet an anthropomorphic humanoid talking cat with a red-and-white striped top hat and a large red bow tie named the Cat in the Hat, who persuades them to learn to have fun but the family's fish does not want the Cat around while Joan is away. During his presence,