connections
In the story, Cindy Lou Who seems to be the sort of unsung hero. Although she doesn't do something that's necessarily extremely heroic, she has a lot of qualities that most heroes do. According to Roger Rollin's article, "From Beowulf to Batman: The Epic Hero in Pop Culture", Cindy is seen to be a type 3 hero. She does not have any superior powers to the other Whos of Whoville, but she does seem to save the Grinch from his misery of hating Christmas. Cindy is set apart from the rest of Whoville with her kindness and ability to accept the Grinch and give him the chance that he deserves.
In How the Grinch Stole Christmas the Grinch seems to have a struggle with his morality starting with the beginning of the movie. As a young boy, he started off loving Christmas and being nice to the people who cared for him as well as his classmates. After the ordeal that happened involving the teasing from Augustus and his other classmates, He began to change his thoughts of Christmas. He isolated himself and talked bad of all the Whos. Then when his morality was really starting to be questionable, he went all the way down Mt. Crumpit to Whoville and tried to steal Christmas. He took all the presents, burned christmas trees, and left nothing but crumbs in their refrigerators. At this point in the story, the Grinch had hit a low and really was left with no morals. Deep down the audience knows that the Grinch can change but at this point he has yet to show it. This can be connected to Plato's Phaedrus. The point in the book where he describes the two horses, one black, one white, one good, one bad. The Grinch's struggle of morality can be compared to this. His actions that show evil qualities are mixed with his thoughts of wanting to love Martha May and believe everything that Cindy is telling him is true; that he can change and that he can be a part of Whoville. Just as the horses can not pull one one carriage due to their opposites, the Grinch must decide how to choose his morals. He undergoes a morality change at the end of the movie and his heart grows two times in size.He goes to Whoville to apologize and become part of their community.