Children
are molded by a variety of institutions, groups, and media to fit the behavior
of the society in which they live using often subliminal methods. This process
is called socialization and can be carried out by a collection of influences,
in this case a children’s book.
When
thinking of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax the first thing that comes to mind is often
the classic tale of the angry Lorax and the young boy searching for the story
of the tale of it all from an old Once-ler up in his tower, not how the whole
story is secretly a metaphor for big business and pollution used to introduce
the idea of environmentalism to children. These ideas are actually introduced
on the very first page where the illustration depicts a small boy venturing off
from a developed town, out into the barren fields where he finds pieces of the
past. This is meant to depict our lives today of people living in great cities
where untouched forests and prairies once laid, but are now covered by concrete
or developed in mass farming with only pieces of preserved land left behind as
state/national parks. After the boy meets the Once-ler, and the Once-ler begins
his tale, the Once-ler tell how he discovered a pristine forest of Truffula
Trees where Bar-ba-loots, Swoome-Swans, and Humming fish roamed in peace
because the grass was still green, the air was still clean, and the pond was
still wet. The illustration for this section depict a much different landscape
filled with a dense forest filled with happy animals and clear blue skies. Even
the general color scheme in this part of the book was much brighter than the
color scheme of present day. This is obviously another metaphor for the
environment in harmony before the over development by mankind.
The
Once-ler goes on to tell how he used one of these trees to make a Thneed which
he sold for a profit. After realizing that he could make money, the Once-ler
ignored the warnings of the Thorax and set up a large business to cut tress
faster to make more Thneeds so he could make more money. This represents the
ideas of big business, how companies discover valuable resources and harvest
them in mass quantities without any regard for the environment, for example in
the Rainforest with deforestation and even in the UP where they mined copper
and leaked a lot of heavy metals into torch lake.
The
Thorax then returns on three separate occasions to tell the Once-ler that he is
sending away animals because of the lack of food for the Bar-ba-loots, the
polluted air for the Swomee-Swans, and the polluted water for the humming fish.
And each time the Once-ler felt bad but continued on because he needed to “bigger
and bigger” because “everyone needs thneeds”. Immediately after, the last
Truffula Tree is cut and everyone leaves. This section of the book is once
again set up to display how big business rips an ecosystem barren without any
regard for the fragility of life in the area. Even the illustrations that were
once bright and happy begin to turn dark and empty in this section, depicting a
shift caused by the actions of the company. The story then jumps back to
present day where the Once-ler wraps up the book by saying that unless someone
cares a lot, nothing will ever get better so we must grow more forests, clean
the water/air, and protect it from harvesting using what little we have left.
This ending takes on a different tone which is almost a call to action from Dr.
Seuss that the reader should actually be the one that cares because they will
most likely encounter this later in life when this message will still be
drilled into their heads. The overall message that resonates through all the
relations to real life is the idea of environmentalism against big business
operations and overconsumption.
Bibliograpgy
Seuss. The Lorax. New York: Random House, 1971. Print.
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