Frog and Toad: The Philosophy of Simple Living

[Music] okay so why am I making a video essay about a 70s picture book series well it's Autumn it's time to get a little cozy a little nostalgic here's my six-year-old signature these are Antiques and I know these are basic little books that taught us how to read but I want to use it as a basis to discuss bigger ideas an English Professor Dr Rosenberg actually uses them in her class at first all her students think they're way too simple to possibly gain anything but she considers it a good lesson in critical literacy and Analysis especially since you're forced to dig a little deeper and if that's not enough the book's author said all of the Frog and Toad stories are based on adult preoccupations really I was able to tilt them somehow so that a child could appreciate them too but I think that adults also enjoy them and I think that's probably why it's because they're really adult stories slightly disguised as children's stories also this is just a silly little video on youtube.com like whatever it's fine Frog and Toad touched on a bunch of Concepts I've been trying to internal wise I think it's easy for a lot of the lessons they try to teach us as children to just go over our heads but there's got to be a reason these little stories stick with us for decades so yeah this is Elementary level self-help in this video I'm gonna explore the author's Vision the themes and the stories and look into why frog and toad is so cozy and wholesome the Frog and Toad series is four books or easy readers published throughout the 70s and written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel I realized he has one of those names with a bunch of different pronunciations but thankfully this handy website has author recordings hello I'm Arnold Lobel growing up in the 30s and 40s Lobel was bullied and isolated as a kid kept to himself a lot and even had a period of prolonged illness at one point but he was good at telling stories to his peers so much so that teachers asked him to take over and tell a story when there is nothing else going on and they wanted the kids to stay still as an adult he got his start illustrating for other authors like nearly a hundred books he actually preferred illustrating to writing but eventually wrote and Illustrated a few of his own though he didn't really get recognition until Frog and Toad her friends in 1970 when he really decided that instead of trying to figure out what kids would like if he was going to be a writer he was going to be like any other writer and have it come from within and he was pretty surprised by its success in one in interview he said I really don't quite know what I'm doing the interviewer responded some part of you knows and he said no really not which you know mood of course the characters themselves the eponymous Frog and Toad were the key to his success and by the way I'm gonna be using clips from this 80s claymation I'll let you decide if it's cute or off-putting what a fine Garden you have frog speaking of Lobel watched a lot of TV with his kids especially comedies and the Frog and toe Dynamic is very clearly inspired by that classic comedic duo in the vein of Abbott and Costello and Burton Ernie personally I think of toad as the George Costanza of children's literature he's a bit neurotic and cranky and over things and much like with Squidward the older we get the more we realize we're more like toad than we thought Lobel seems to think so too remarking that toad is like most of us he knows the limits he never goes over the line there's always a certain logic to everything he does he's irritated because he's looking for something that he hasn't found he's the kind of person who if something goes wrong goes to bed I don't know who frog is in comparison but he's the inverse of toad he's more chill and cheerful and outgoing so they form that lovable and familiar balance Lobel found comfort in children's books even as an adult and felt the good ones ultimately had more to offer than just pretty pictures and he's right it seems kids are often most impacted when they're not condescended to or put another way not treated like children at least those are the kind of stories I remember most he didn't even use controlled vocabulary despite it being an I can read book I think ironically this all stems from his not really knowing how to talk to kids though he wished the best for children it didn't really mean he wanted to be around them and he often declined speaking events he pointed out that some of the most notable children's authors were in the same boat quote Maurice Sendak has never been within two feet of a child and Hans Christian Anderson was a fussy prissy Old Maid of a bachelor and I don't think he would have children anywhere within 10 miles of him so yeah you don't need to love children's company to write for or care for them and Lobel did care for them he loved Frog and Toad most for their accessibility which was accomplished mostly in three ways one they're cheap so schools and kids could get them easier two he said using animals brings it to everybody and they belong to everyone Rich poor white black it seems that sort of inclusivity was pretty important to him maybe at least partially because he was gay he came out to his family in the mid 70s and this has led some people including his daughter to speculate that Frog and Toad was about a little more than friendship I can just hear Alex Jones in the distance and the freaking frogs gay this interpretation brings an added sweetness to the stories but also Melancholy since he spent most of his life closeted sadly he only lived semi-openly for a few years before passing away you can find a patch for him in the AIDS Memorial quilt made with love by school kids who treasured his Creations using animals also made it so they could act somewhere between child and adults they didn't have to be bogged down by the limitations of being too young or the limitations of being older with boring responsibilities Lobel said you can give animals the freedom of adults while they still maintain the attitudes of children I think children feel very restricted in their lives they're surrounded by boundaries life is a prison relief for most children and they feel a release when they read stories about Frog and Toad who don't have parents but who are children really their preoccupations are those of children yet they have the freedom of adults also just in a general sense he thought stories about loving Mommy and Daddy in white Suburbia and all the little domestic problems were just overdone and boring and that kids didn't care about that stuff that brings me to the style and setting the Charming drawings of a little Forest life with deliberately muted Aesthetics only using greens and Browns which is rare for children's books since they usually use plenty of bright colors Lobel was trying to capture a particular experience of nostalgia a sense of cozy security and safety he talked about how as an adult you want to create a feeling of well-being for kids it's whether or not you feel it yourself that no matter how nightmarish you feel the world is you want to kind of hide that away for them and eventually that sense of protection becomes part of you too that's the root of the warmth and frog and toad it's safe it's happy it's stress-free it's freedom from the weight of everything in that interview I referenced Lobel mentioned I'm very careful in the stories not to make any direct allusions to Modern Life that's something I just sense not to do frog and toad don't call each other on the telephone toad takes a walk and he visits frog he could I suppose pick up the telephone and call but that would be too much the world would be too much with them even in 1977 that was too much and now it's 10 times as much sometimes existence right now just feels like endless noise and Lobel sought out to recreate the Tranquil feeling he got from children's books what he described as the comfort of crackers and warm milk it's something we touched on in our video on Ghibli films that Slice of Life feeling wanting so badly to just hold a moment in your hands and just live there that longing for some abstract idea of comfort and rest maybe you missed something you can't quite articulate maybe it's a feeling or a moment in time or both so I think it's relevant to note that when I talk about a simpler life I'm not really talking about the cottage core aesthetic that blew up when the pandemic started all those pretty fantasies of idyllic isolated Countryside living though one could argue Frog and Toad fits the criteria sometimes people took it a little too far and advocated some picturesque off-the-grid ideology romanticizing Rural Life and kind of ignoring that a lot of the real life conditions associated with it is just poverty like the closest I've gotten to simple living in this sense is spending some Summers growing up in my mom's small town in the Dominican Republic you had the Outhouse raising chickens no AC lots of mosquito Nets and rolling blackouts were the norm I have fond memories of playing outside all day with my cousins but like I also had a Game Boy and I got to go back to another objectively easier life in Suburban America come August so yeah I don't hope to present some delusional idea of rural ecstasy here even the advantages in frog and Toad's lifestyle were pointed out in Dr rosenberg's paper after some consideration her students would start contemplating that not everyone has pretty Cottages in the country nor do all people have Fine China or Leisure to sit in front of a fire sipping wine Frog and Toad are very middle class but that secure Suburban life with its amenities is so thoroughly ingrained as the default North American life even though many people do not actually possess it Lobel even admits as much quote it's all very Bourgeois AKA bougie there's a lot of furniture a lot of accoutrements of the home because that's what I am all that being said I think the average person who enjoys Cottage core doesn't really mean any harm by it and are generally aware that working a farm intending a productive Garden are actually pretty difficult and I can understand the core sentiment behind the movement it's escapism people want to rest from all the hustle and commotion they want to be able to say actually I don't want to be productive right now I don't have anything to prove I just want to appreciate life as it is for what it is in this moment with small things that bring me joy they want to stop the noise so hopefully in a bit we can pluck out the more realistic and practical aspects of the simple living Cottage core fantasy and apply it to where we're at right now since you know we can't all go live off the land when we look at frog and Toad's cozy laid-back life it's enviable Lobel describes it as a sort of Domesticity Nostalgia for this kind of snug security it's inspired by his own upbringing he says quote I'm really a very domestic kind of person I guess that comes through in the illustrations and most of my work I'm really not much of a traveler or Wanderer or Adventurer and I think that feeling certainly comes into my books I noticed that all of my books are rather homebound I'm a small Adventurer there's also the sense of introversion he mentions that being raised by histoic German Jewish grandparents equipped him with a very reserved and withdrawn personality not the kind to embrace other people easily I'm sure introverts and extroverts alike see the appeal of this kind of space but it's especially irresistible to the former in the article the Frog and Toad stories of Arnold Lobel a psychoanalytic perspective the author remarks that as meaningful as the Pastoral world of frog and toad is there's meaning too when we move inside their Cottages the sense of snugness smallness and aliveness that recurs in popular works of children's literature is very present in the Frog and Toad books here there are no intrusions from the outside world teapot clock and books accepted chairs are ample and rounded and usually drawn close to a blazing fire cozy domestic Interiors are I believe another example of internal space and for toad especially they provide a womb-like refuge it's notable that Toad's home is where most domestic scenes take place and when there it can seem as if we're inside Toad's head and his unconscious fantasies okay so we get why these books feel good and safe and happy provide all these Pleasant feelings but what else is going on in the narrative because as a 1988 article but it being lighthearted is not the same as being lightweight the first story I want to talk about is actually the last one it's called alone and all the themes we've kind of talked about up to now about appreciating simple Joys and all that are laid out pretty beautifully here toad visits Frog's house and discovers a note on the door I realize I'm basically doing kindergarten Story Time with a bunch of 20 to 30 year olds but just roll with it the note says Dear toad I'm not at home I went out I want to be alone obviously toad wonders why frog would possibly want to be alone when he has a friend like toad he looks for frog everywhere and finally sees him sitting on a rock in a river he figures frog must be sad so he makes lunch goes back to the river and hitches a ride on a turtle who wisely asks if frog wants to be alone why don't you leave him alone and Toad of course takes this to mean their friendship is over so he shouts out all kinds of apologies before falling into the river after frog helps him out he explains he made the ruined lunch for frog so he'd be happy frog says be toad I am happy I'm very happy this morning when I woke up I felt good because the Sun was shining I felt good because I was a frog and I felt good because I have you for a friend I wanted to be alone I wanted to think about how fine everything is Toad agrees that's a pretty good reason and now Frog's glad not to be alone and they eat lunch together in a video a long while back I talked about the Greek philosopher epicurus whose philosophy of Happiness was less rooted in Indulgence and excess and more in a modest Life soothed by community and day-to-day Pleasures frog saying he's happy about the sun shining about being alive about having a friend these aren't things you can go out and buy they're not things you can really achieve in the classical sense but they're always the most important and to sit down or take a walk and think about that or even write about it is probably the central tenet behind having a balanced simpler Life Next story is called Spring April has finally arrived so frog visits toad to wake him up from hibernation and force him outside the sun is shining the snow is melting wake up frog does describes all the things he's looking forward to doing with toad now that it's springtime skip Through The Meadows run through the woods swim in the river count the stars in the evenings [Music] but instead toad goes back to bed asking frog to come back next month so frog rips off the pages in Toad's calendar until he gets to may he shows Toad and convinces him to come outside at last so the takeaway from this one is sometimes you have to lie to get what you want not really I just wanted to talk about getting outside you know that whole touch grass concept I get the phrase will be overused if it isn't already but it's a very necessary sentiment you've heard it before but we're not equipped to take in so much information and opinions at all times it distorts our perception of people and makes us lose touch with reality embracing nature on a regular basis helps bring your mind back down to earth more so than a YouTube video probably could as Mary Oliver put it in Upstream come with me into the field of sunflowers is a better line than anything you'll find here and the sunflowers themselves far more wonderful than any words about them for the nature and frog and toad Lobel Drew on his childhood memories of Summer spend in Vermont where he often kept frogs and toads as pets I I also played with them a lot as a kid spend a lot of time in the dirt not too long ago I helped a frog get out of my car pretty sure it was an American green tree frog it hopped on my wrist and I just kind of like watched it for a while before I put it in the grass I still think about that frog like once a week so yeah nature is comforting and can remind you of how magical life can be so try to take a weekly walk or visit a park now that the weather is getting cooler you can sit outside at a cafe whatever's convenient just get out there if you can spare 10 to 20 minutes you can also look at all those cool James Webb Telescope photos remember how big the universe is and how small we and our lives are it can be reassuring to recognize most of the little stuff we worry about all day isn't that important this next story is called tomorrow in it Toad's house has become a mess and as frog points out all the tours toad has to do he keeps putting them off until tomorrow until he realizes the amount he's put off and starts spreading about the day to come he says well if I do this one thing I don't have to do it to tomorrow and that snowballs into the next little thing and the next until he's finished and feels better and says now I can save tomorrow for something I really want to do so something that's helped me form better habits as I've gotten older is treating future me like a friend and it doesn't just have to be about keeping my space clean it can be if I exercise today I'll be in a better mood tomorrow or how about I don't impulse buy an item and save up for something I value more I want to make life simpler for tomorrow's version of me so like toad I can just take life easy I mean it's never going to be easy but at least there are small things I can do to make it go a little smoother and I love the idea of one small task at a time like toad did where he could have stopped at any point if he chose to it makes it feel less overwhelming just taking it one tiny step at a time I guess that sort of leads me to the next story a list toad makes a list of all the things he needs to do that day I'm pretty jealous of this to-do list my dream wife I love that he wrote wake up and immediately crossed it off okay so he goes down the list Crossing off with he accomplishes until a wind blows the list away he refuses to do anything for the rest of the day because he doesn't have the list to guide him as night falls frog jogs his memory and he recalls that go to sleep was on the list he writes it in the sand crosses it out and they fall asleep together the story was inspired by lobel's own habits he described himself as a compulsive list writer so what I've decided to take from this is to not put too much stock in the plans you've set for yourself or at least not so much that if it doesn't go right it paralyzes you from taking action in a different direction Dr Rosenberg points out that ironically Toad endows the physical list with far more significance than the activities it describes and I think we often do that sometimes with to-do lists sometimes with more General Life plans we become more obsessed with the planning and achieving than the outcome itself because even if you do reach a goal you'll just move on to the next and then the next an endless cycle of productivity you'll never be satisfied and I think a big part of a simpler lifestyle is being content with the Here and Now not that you shouldn't have goals but that they shouldn't be the sole measure of your self-worth or enjoyment of life in the next story dragons and Giants Frog and Toad wonder whether they're Brave like the people in fairy tales we look Brave yes but are we to test their bravery they try stuff like climbing a mountain and exploring a dark cave and in the process avoid a snake in an avalanche and a hawk they run all the way back to Toad's house and complement each other's bravery while frog hides in the closet and Toad hides under the covers and I'm happy to know a brave person like you Toad quote they stayed there for a long time just feeling very brave together I thought this one was worth mentioning for a couple reasons one because like Dr Rosenberg put it it interrogates the conventions of romance and fairy tales in which those who fight dragons and Giants are never afraid reality is dangerous and fairy tales the story suggests don't give helpful information for how to deal with that danger Frog and Toad however do show an appropriate response in running away from danger as a kid every time I read about children in fairy tales doing really cool stuff I thought couldn't be me so this story really validated that Scaredy Cat part of myself so I wanted to bring up a Lobel quote you could ask what is the difference between a child and an adult I think a child probably goes through all the same kind of struggles I don't think we lose anything when we grow up we think that we're adults and that our emotions are adult but we're really just going through the same kind of thing that we went through as children maybe we were more open about revealing our feelings when we were children I think this idea pairs nicely with this story speaks to how we're raised to suppress the softer sides of ourselves the parts of us that are scared or lost or weak and instead of expressing that's how you may feel in the moment it's a little random but I think part of living a simpler life is accepting that these may be less desirable feelings are inevitable sometimes they're worth examining and deconstructing and sometimes it's fine to just let them be and let them pass a grounded manageable life isn't just about curating your surroundings but getting more in tune with your thoughts and emotions you may have seen memes about this next story cookies code makes a batch of cookies and takes them over to Frog's house they eat a lot of them frog says let's eat just one more and after that toad says let's eat just one more and so on frog says they need willpower to stop willpower is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do and they try to stop themselves they put the cookies in a box we can open the box that is true they tie string around the box but we can cut the string and open the box that is true and they put the Box up on a high shelf but we can climb the ladder and take the box down from the Shelf ah that is true finally frog takes the cookies outside and lets the birds take them away we have lots and lots of willpower you may keep it all I'm going home now to bake a cake I'm gonna take this as a commentary on consumerism in regards to this story Lobel said when you take a simple situation like that trying to check a compulsion really you touch on the whole range of things I guess it lends itself very perfectly to a whole aspect of fighting with oneself and that can be for any kind of habit gratification that one feels is bad for one materialism and constant consumption have become the norm whether you give in or not there's a Non-Stop pressure to buy and spend so it can often be difficult to feel content with what you have even if you've had plenty of cookies there's always a new cookie to eat even if just for a moment of fleeting pleasure so when people think about minimalism they often picture a bare colorless living space or getting rid of all of your possessions so the whole concept kind of turns people off but of course there should always be a balance somewhere I read the phrase willpower is useful but joy is essential I'm going home now to bake a cake trying to curb consumption in its many forms the actual core of minimalism is really about being conscious and deliberate with what you choose to bring into your home and into your mind if something genuinely makes you happy then it serves a good purpose you just have to determine what those things actually are the dream feels a little different than the others in it Toad's having a dream he's in costume on a stage and frog is the lone audience member presenting the greatest toad in all the world a disembodied announcer presents Toad's various talents playing piano walking on a high wire dancing all the while toad boasts to frog asking him if he can do all these things you do tricks like this no frog always replies no growing smaller each time until he disappears completely toad cries out for frog and silences the announcer come back frog he says or I'll be lonely toad wakes up from the dream to frog standing nearby toad looked at the sunshine coming through the window frog he said I'm so glad that you came over I always do said frog then Frog and Toad ate a big breakfast and after that they spent a fine long day together this story reminded me of lobel's stated reasoning for ending the Frog and Toad series he felt there was a certain cruelty in the relationship that frog was controlling and toad was controlled he didn't really notice this Dynamic until maybe the third book but this story seems to show an earlier example of pushback from toad of trying to have the upper hand for once Lobel based the story on a friendship he had with a person obsessed with one-upmanship there's a tension in that kind of relationship and if you don't fight it especially because you care for them you may feel as though you're shrinking in the endless quest to achieve societal ideas of success we may lose sight of the relationships right in front of us those who accept us as we are right now a lost button is pretty self-explanatory toad loses one of the buttons on his jacket and spends the whole day trying to find it with the help of frog and a bunch of other Forest Critters this is not my button after being presented with a bunch of buttons that aren't his toad finally loses it and just goes home where he finds his button on the floor he realizes he'd been making a fuss all day over something that didn't really matter all the while ignoring that everyone was trying to help him so he sews all the buttons onto his jacket and gives it to Frog as a gift so in this of course is the element of appreciation especially when people help you or put up with you when the times you're being extra the Button had been there all along and so had frog so had everyone toad realizes this after he had a moment to cool down and he chose to express his gratitude for Frog's patience and concern it's a wholesome moment and a reminder to acknowledge the people in our lives we often take for granted it reminded me of a passage in one of my favorite books which is coincidentally titled who will run the Frog Hospital quote I often think that at the center of me is a voice that at last did split a house in my heart so invaded with other people in their speech friends I believed I was devoted to people whose lives I can only guess that now that it gives me the impression that I am simply a collection of them that they all existed for themselves but had ended advertently formed me than vanished but what should I have been expected to create my own self out of nothing out of thin thin air and alone that brings me to The Last Story I wanted to talk about the surprise it's October and frog and toad look out of their Windows to see that the Autumn Leaves have fallen they each make a plan to go over to the other's house and surprise them by raking the leaves they head over on separate paths see the other isn't home and get to work as they each head home after a tiring day a gust of wind blows the leaves everywhere again they get home to their messy Lawns planning to rake for themselves the next day but they're pleased about how surprised the other must have been to have gotten home to a neat lawn that night Frog and Toad were both happy when they each turned out the light and went to bed I love this story for its sense of imperfection I vaguely remember being a kid and frustrated by the idea that nothing came of their hard work like what was the point you're kind of forced to consider it Beyond they did a nice thing and it paid off in the end the point wasn't the outcome of a job well done but the pure implication of the act itself and the resulting joy that comes from being there for someone you love love in a New Yorker article titled Frog and Toad an amphibious celebration of same-sex love they try to determine meaning in this story quote at the end frog and Toad's altruism has amounted to nothing more than the feeling they each got from it what does a child learn from this that doing good deeds can make the doer feel good even if those deeds go unrecognized that those to whom we feel closest will never fully know how much we care for them I think it's a mix of both though most especially the sense that love was there and that that was enough foreign for the first story I mentioned alone which like I said is actually the last story in the Frog and Toad series after frog helped toad out of the river and explains why he wanted to be alone Frog and Toad stayed on the island all afternoon they ate wet sandwiches without iced tea they were two close friends sitting alone together I thought there was a sort of poignant finality to it a peaceful perfect farewell with frog and toad facing away from us and looking out into the Horizon you just knew they'd go on to have plenty more little happy Adventures as far as their relationship I think Frog and Toad can be considered in every way Partners best friends siblings parent and child the two halves of you just as their colors complement each other on the outside their nature goes hand in hand when asked which character he's most like Lobel said both both I think everybody is both he went on to say at the time it was important for me and my creative process to go Inward and to start writing about things go going on in myself I wanted a mouthpiece for myself I wanted a dialogue to go on between two characters who were essentially me talking to myself you may have noticed but most of the stories revolve around Toad's anxieties and preoccupations and how frog guides him and helps him overcome them I'm so glad you came over I always do in the same sense we need our frog half to comfort and nurture our toad half to learn how to cultivate that sense of Peace so we can step outside when spring comes again and the sun is shining and that alone could make us happy enough hey y'all thanks for watching I didn't have time to talk about all of the stories so I'd love to hear your interpretations of ones I didn't cover or which ones are your favorite or if you drew different conclusions than I did I probably didn't say anything you haven't heard before in terms of self-help but I don't know it's fun to look at this advice through the lens of frog and toad and the idea is bear repeating anyway if you enjoyed this video or any of our other videos we'd really appreciate it if you considered supporting the channel on patreon it's just two dollars it helps us in a lot of ways and we're getting closer and closer to 50 patrons so we can start posting bonus content on there much more regularly check it out if you can hope your October is nice and spooky and cozy so far and I'll catch you guys next time bye

Channel: Quality Culture

Views: 1,340,416

Keywords: frog and toad, toad and frog, frog and toad arnold lobel, frog and toad analysis, frog and toad breakdown, frog and toad review, frog and toad video essay, simple living, cottagecore, simple life

Id: dUwV1LdWWIA

Length: 28min 59sec (1739 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2022