The Mr Men and the Maoist dialectic
The political subtext of the Mr Men books can best be understood when considered from a traditional Maoist perspective. Each is, in essence, a pean to the necessity of social conformance and the error of individuality.
The stories follow the same general rubric: the protagonist is introduced, and the excesses of his deviant behavior are detailed. Other members of his work unit (often the doctrinaire overman Mr Happy) stage interventions to enforce compliance with the norm; protagonists are shunned, browbeaten or forcibly rectified. Each story ends with the reeducated protagonist agreeing that his new modus vivendi is better and more socially responsible than his previous lifestyle.
Protagonists follow familiar patterns of impolitic behaviour:
- class enemies (Mr Uppity, Mr Greedy, Mr Clever, Mr Lazy),
- counter-revolutionaries (Mr Brave, Mr Perfect, Mr Nosey),
- revisionists (Mr Chatterbox, Mr Grumble, Mr Wrong),
- general sociopaths (Mr Rude, Mr Noisy),
- and other "wrong thinkers" (Mr Muddle, Mr Topsy-Turvy, Mr Impossible).
All are subject to the same scheme of personality rectification.
Of course, the real purpose of these morality tales is to enforce social control. The young reader is encouraged to internalise the ethic that individuality is harmful and wrong, and to supress dissent before it even begins.
Only the afflicted (Mr Bump, Mr Slow, Mr Forgetful) are spared a Maoist reeducational experience, but are instead found a (frequently condescending) "special needs" occupation, a ghetto where their disability can be viewed as an asset, and in which the effects of their non-consensual deviance upon the body of society can curtailed. Mr Bump, for example, works alone in an orchard, collecting the fruit that falls from trees into which he has stumbled.