FREE ESSAY ON THE LORAX BY DR. SEUSS

THE LORAX BY DR. SEUSS

The Lorax
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is a children's book about greed and destruction. The book is set
in the forest of Truffula Trees. The Once-ler was riding through the country in his wagon
one day and discovers the beautiful forest of Truffula Trees. 
Way back in the day when the grass was still green
And the pond was still wet
And the clouds were still clean,
And the song of the Swomee-Swans rang out in space...
One morning I came to this glorious place.
And I first saw the trees!
The Truffula Trees!
The bright colored tufts of the Truffula Trees!
Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze.
The forest of the Truffula Trees was very lush and full of life. The Brown Bar-ba-loots
were playing in their Bar-ba-loot suits and the Humming-Fish were humming. It was a
utopia, a heaven on Earth. The Once-ler was greedy though and didn't see the natural
beauty of the Truffula Trees. Instead, the Once-ler saw the trees and thought of all the
money he could make by chopping them down and knitting their tufts into Thneeds. When he
chopped down the first Truffula Tree the Lorax came to his office to speak for the trees.
He begged the Once-ler to not chop down the Truffula Trees, but the Once-ler was
convinced that his Thneeds were the things that everyone needs. 
A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!
It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat. 
But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that.
So the Once-ler sold his first Thneed and he was in business. Here was the chance for the
Once-ler and his family to be rich so he called them all up and started a business. The
Once-ler built a factory and his business was in full tilt. He chopped as many Truffula
Trees as he could and kept making more and more Thneeds. He expanded and used super ax
hackers that could cut down four trees at once. The Lorax came back and had more
complaints for the Once-ler.
NOW... thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground,
There's not enough Truffula Fruit to go 'round.
And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies
Because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!
BUT...
Business is business!
And business must grow
Regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.
The Once-ler did not care about the environment. As he said, Business is business. All he
cared about was profits and not the beauty of the land he was destroying. With each hack
of his super ax hacker he was contributing to the destruction of the Truffula Tree
forest. He didn't plant any Truffula Trees in place of the ones he cut down. He only had
time to run his factory and make Thneeds. He kept making more Thneeds and making more
money. Slowly all the animals that depended on the Truffula Trees for food, shelter, and
fresh air had to move away from the barren wasteland that was once a beautiful and clean
forest. The air was full of smog and the lakes were full of gook from the factory. 
The Lorax and the Once-ler fought until the very last Truffula Tree was chopped. The
Once-lers family left and so did the Lorax. Just the Once-ler and his factory were left.
But the Lorax left one thing, a small pile of rocks with a word carved into them, UNLESS.
So for years and years the Once-ler sat in his house on top of his factory and worried
about what he had done. In his heart he felt terrible that he let his greed cause so much
destruction. So one day he told his story to a boy that wandered to his house. He told
the boy that the meaning of the pile of rocks that the Lorax left behind was clear to him
now. Unless someone who cares a lot does something, nothing is going to get better. So he
gave the boy the very last Truffula Tree seed and told him to plant it and protect it,
and maybe some day there would be a forest of Truffula Trees again. 
The Lorax, written in 1971 was Dr. Seuss' personal favorite. He wrote a masterpiece about
pollution- its causes and the solutions. The book was made into a television special for
the CBS network, which necessitated some toning down of the criticism of big businesses
in the book, in order not to offend the program's commercial sponsors. Of all the Dr.
Seuss books, The Lorax is the most strident and most thinly veiled of all the allegories,
and its message, both to big businesses and young readers, is crystal clear. The Lorax is
hard to describe. His appearance on the stump of the first Truffula Tree that is axed
suggests that he is a nature spirit, living in the tree and liberated by the chopping. It
also says that he needs a soapbox or a pulpit to get his message across. He is clearly
some kind of messenger or supernatural guardian of living but defenseless things, for as
he says,  I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. The name calling and
arguing between the Once-ler and the Lorax suggests that Dr. Seuss had very strong
feelings on the issues he is discussing and the message that he is trying to convey. 
The Once-ler's goals sound like old adages and common sense. Business is business!/ And
business must grow is a typical American attitude, adopted when the resources of our
continent seemed limitless, and when a growth economy was the only way known to measure
business success and prosperity. In opposition to the Once-ler, the Lorax points out the
problems involved in the conduct of business, especially manufacturing
industries-destruction of natural resources with no concern for replacing them, and
pollution of the rest of the natural habitat, with the destruction of animals. The
animals in the story do not die, but they do suffer: the Bar-ba-loots have crummies in
their tummies, the Swomee-Swans have smog in their throats, and the Humming Fish have
gunk in their gills. But the Lorax is a good guardian, sending them off before they die;
though it is not clear where they will go. 
Throughout the entire book you see only the Once-ler's hands. The lack of a body for the
Once-ler allows the reader to imagine what a scary creature could be the cause of all
this destruction. But the hands are significant for a number of other reasons. The
Once-ler's hands are always busy, always manipulating, and never simply lying idle. In
the 70's when this book was written industry and work with the hands were highly regarded
by Americans. The Once-ler's hands have disregard for everything they touch with the
exception of money. It is important that the last Truffula Tree seed is placed in the
boy's hands because the Once-lers hands have only brought destruction. The job of
restoring the Truffula Trees is not an easy task for the boy. The Once-ler's name implies
that he uses things only once and it also suggests that once upon a time things were
better. 
The degree of destruction slowly worsens and worsens throughout the book. When the
Once-ler first arrives he calls it a glorious place and it evokes images of paradise. He
starts of the story telling the boy,  Way back in the days when the grass was still
green/ and the pond was still wet/ and the clouds were still clean. By the end of the
story it is a dark and deserted town  where only grickle grass grows Darker shades of
blue, green, and violet are the colors of the destroyed landscape; while bright yellows,
pinks, and shades of green were the colors of the landscaped prior to the Once-lers
arrival. 
In the end, the boy is responsible for resurrection of the Truffula Tree forest. It
wasn't by chance that a boy was entrusted with saving the environment. This is a message
to young readers that it is children who can save the world and make the future a better
place. The boy receives the Truffula seeds and is put into action. Dr. Seuss undoubtedly
hoped that kids who read the Lorax would be see this and take action on half of the
environment. Planting seeds is a small gesture and it is something that children can
accomplish. It stands as a simple way to restore a damaged environment. The Lorax is a
role model for the reader. The Lorax shows that anyone can speak out and oppose the
actions of polluters. The power and passion with which the Lorax argues indicates the
tone that one should use when protesting actions that are destructive to the environment.
Showing the stupidity of consumers, as they thoughtlessly purchase Thneeds tells the
reader that they can refuse to buy products that are wasteful and bad for the
environment. Raising awareness of pollution, and giving children some specific action to
take against it is an important message. In writing the Lorax, Dr. Suess produced a
masterpiece that both entertained and informed the reader. Standing against ecological
destruction and raising environmental awareness are lessons that through the Lorax, Dr.
Seuss teaches us all.