Chicken Soup for the Nice Guy's Soul

What Thidwick is really about is showing kids that sometimes social mores—when taken at face value and without a dose of critical analysis—aren't necessarily good for us. Seuss does this by deconstructing one of our more sacred social rules: kindness.

Just consider all the lessons we teach children about kindness. We tell them to share what they have, especially with those less fortunate; we teach children to be hospitable to others, an idea so ingrained in Western culture that it's in play as far back as The Odyssey. And then there's the golden rule—you know, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And since it's golden, it means no rule can be more valuable than it (that's kind of how gold rolls).

But at what point do we stop and discuss with children when it's okay to not share, to not be kind? This poem ponders this question when the narrator breaks the fourth wall to ask: "Well, what would YOU do / If it happened to YOU?" (25.1-2). Then the narrator goes all parental and gives the reader a lecture, and we're guessing they've heard something similar once or twice:

You couldn't say "Skat!" 'cause that wouldn't be right.
You couldn't shout "Scram!" 'cause that isn't polite.
A host has to put up with all kinds of pests,
For a host, above all, must be nice to his guests. (26.1-4)

Thankfully, children are smart. They know that even though the poem is telling them they can't say these things, these are the very things Thidwick needs to tell his supposed guests. And that's exactly what Thidwick eventually does: "And he called to the pests on his horns as he threw 'em, / 'You wanted my horns; now you're quite welcome to 'em!'" (48.12). Which is really just an awesome way of saying get outta here.

Kindness is all well and good, but even the golden rule can lose its luster after a spell. Lesson learned.