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The Lorax

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   The Lorax ( ISBN 0394823370)is a children's story written by Dr. Seuss
   and first published in 1971. The tale chronicles the plight of the
   environment and the Lorax (a "mossy, bossy" man-like creature), who
   speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler.

   The book is commonly recognized as a parable concerning industrialized
   society, using the literary element of personification to give life to
   industry as the Once-ler (whose face is never shown in all of the
   story's illustrations) and to the environment as the Lorax.

   The Lorax is arguably Seuss' most controversial work, having been
   banned in some schools and libraries for its political content.
   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   A boy comes to a dark, desolate corner of town called "the Street of
   the Lifted Lorax," to learn who the Lorax was and how he got "lifted
   and taken away." Through a "whisper-ma-phone," the Once-ler tells the
   boy what happened. When the Once-ler first arrived at this place, it
   was a beautiful, sunny forest where the Swomee-Swans sang, the
   Humming-Fish hummed, and Brown Bar-ba-loots played in the shade while
   eating the fruit of the Truffula Trees, colorful woolly trees spread
   throughout the area. Enchanted by these gorgeous trees, the Once-ler
   built a small shop, where he chopped down a tree and knitted a Thneed,
   an odd-looking but versatile garment that he insisted "everyone needs."
   Out of the stump popped a strange little man called the Lorax, who
   claimed to "speak for the trees." The Lorax first pooh-poohed the
   Once-ler's creation, until someone came along and bought it. Spurred by
   greed, the Once-ler invited all his relatives to town where they
   started a huge Thneed-making business, chopping down Truffula Trees
   left and right, much to the Lorax's distress. The skies gradually got
   darker and more polluted, forcing the Lorax to send the Bar-ba-loots,
   the swans, and the fish off in search of a better place to live. The
   Once-ler, while upset to see the animals go, dismissed the Lorax's
   pleadings until the last Truffula Tree got chopped down, leaving the
   Once-ler alone with the Lorax and a failed business in a desolate place
   under a dark smoggy sky. With a "sad backward glance," the Lorax picked
   himself up by the "seat of the pants" and floated away through a hole
   in the smog. At the end of the story, the Once-ler reveals that he has
   one last Truffula seed left, and instructs the boy to start a new
   forest so that "the Lorax and all of his friends may come back."

Interpretation

   The Once-ler ran his company with the exclusive goal of increasing its
   sales and profits as rapidly as possible, a common practice in a
   corporate market economy: "business is business and business must
   grow." In the process he ignored the long-term sustainability of his
   business and environmental concerns such as biodiversity and habitat
   loss. In his old age he tells a curious boy about the splendor of
   nature in his youth and the growth and crash of industry at the far end
   of town.

   Discovering the potential for profit in a lush forest of Truffula
   trees, the Once-ler began clearcutting it to mass-market Thneeds made
   from the Truffula tree tufts. The Lorax vehemently protested the
   destruction of the Truffula forest, stating that the Once-ler was crazy
   with greed and that his business was destroying the Truffula ecosystem,
   causing mass migrations of native fauna, including the bear-like
   Bar-ba-loots and species of fish and birds. The Once-ler didn't listen;
   he continued clearcutting the trees and dumping industrial waste into
   nearby ponds. Eventually the Once-ler's Thneed business consumed every
   single Truffula tree, eliminating the Truffula forest ecosystem and
   putting his own company out of business. The Once-ler's relatives
   abandoned him, and the Lorax flew away, leaving behind a small pile of
   rocks inscribed with the word "UNLESS."

   With age the Once-ler has come to realize the folly of his ways and the
   importance of conservation. Speaking to the boy in the story, and
   directly to the reader, the Once-ler explains that "unless" people take
   an active and caring role in their environment, "nothing is going to
   get better, it's not." The Once-ler then gives the boy the very last
   Truffula seed, telling him to grow a new tree and eventually a forest
   and protect it from unsustainable industrial practices, and that then
   perhaps the Lorax and his animal friends would return.

Trivia

     * The Lorax has the distinction of being the only book that Seuss
       himself ever changed after publication, by removing the Lorax's
       line, "I hear things are just as bad up at Lake Erie!" which he
       found to be out of place in his fantasy work, as it referred to a
       real world place.

     * The Lorax resembles United States President Theodore Roosevelt, the
       first US President to make conservation a priority for his
       administration and who established the United States Forest
       Service.

     * The book is included in Rage Against The Machine's reading list.

     * Several timber industry groups sponsored the creation of a book
       called The Traux, about a logging-friendly creature that talks
       reason and convinces environmentalists to pipe down and love
       logging.

     * The book was made into an animated television special in 1972,
       produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. The line about Lake Erie
       was spoken by one of the humming fish as they marched out of the
       river at the foot of the Once-ler's factory.

     * The book was made into a rock opera in mid-2006 by Matt Vick.

     * The book was one of Dr. Seuss's personal favorites.

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