Popular Culture Review Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2000 | Page 111

Grendel, Geisel, and the Grinch

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a kid with a German father. When they clobbered me, they yelled 'Kill
the Kaiser! ’”9
Geisel indeed shares with the brothers and the Grinch the experience of being an
outcast or outsider. In circumstances reminiscent of GrendePs, he is denounced and
driven away because of his kinship with the ENEMY, who in his case is the Kaiser
rather than Cain. Geisel, though, would certainly be able to appreciate the intensity
of GrendePs feelings and reaction to his inherited state of perpetual exile. Not only
was GeisePs family the wrong nationality during the First World War, but at the
beginning of this century, when the move toward Prohibition was gaining speed
and acceptance, theirs was the wrong occupation as well — even in the German
American community: Ted’s Grandfather Geisel was a brewer, and his family became
unpopular, as did others who associated with them. Ultimately, his grandfather died
on December 5, 1919, just before Prohibition became law, and Ted’s father rose
from general manager to president of the by-then-doomed family brewery10.
But perhaps the most traumati