In Yertle the Turtle, Mack burps and makes Yertle fall.
Mack is the turtle at the bottom of the enormous stack Yertle orders the others to form beneath him. Yertle, the pond’s self-important king, wants to rise high enough to rule everything he can see, but the turtles below suffer under the weight and repeatedly plead for relief.
When Yertle commands the turtles to add still more to the stack, Mack finally rebels. He lets out a burp that shakes the unstable turtle throne, sending Yertle tumbling into the mud. The fall ends Yertle’s rule, while Mack and the other turtles are free to swim again.
The story appeared in Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, first published by Random House on April 12, 1958. Its authoritarian king has often been read as a political symbol; Geisel said Yertle represented Francisco Franco. Readers sometimes remember the burp as a joke only, but it also serves as the story’s act of resistance against tyranny.