Earth Day and The Lorax
Saturday 22nd April 2023 (Earth Day)
‘The Lorax’ is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss, first published in 1971 and released as a film in 2012. The story in the film takes place in the fictional town of Thneed-Ville, after all the trees have been cut down and replaced with factories. The protagonist, a young boy named Ted (Dr. Seuss’s real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel or Ted), wants to impress a girl he likes (Audrey) by showing her a real tree, but he soon discovers that they no longer exist in his town. Ted is curious about the world beyond his city and sets out to find the answers, having been told by his energetic Grandmother that he should speak to ‘The Once-ler’. The Once-ler lives “Far outside of town where the grass never grows and the wind smells slow and sour when it blows. And no birds ever sing, excepting old crows” because “People used to say if you brought him 15 cents, a nail and the shell of a great, great, great grandfather snail” he would tell you everything about what happened to the trees.
Ted finds a way out of the city to where most of the city’s waste and contaminants are, and into an empty wasteland filled with tree stumps, and broken-down equipment. Following a path, he arrives at the Once-ler’s Lerkim (his home in the ruins of his abandoned Thneed factory). At first the Once-ler tells Ted to go away, but when Ted tell him that he wishes to hear about trees, the Once-ler begins to tell him his tale — “Do you want to know about trees? About what happened to them? Why they’re all gone? It’s because of me.”
A Thneed (a versatile ‘Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need’)
The Once-ler tells Ted that it all started a long time ago, when he was a young man and left home “With nothing but a wagon, a mule, and a completely irrational sense of optimism. I was searching the globe, obsessed with finding the perfect material for my Thneed. But I’d had absolutely no success. Until one day, I found paradise …”
Those trees! Those trees!
Those Truffula trees!
All my life I’ve been searching
for trees such as these.
The touch of their tufts
was much softer than silk.
And they had the sweet smell
of fresh buttery milk.
He describes finding the most beautiful place filled with bright tufted Truffula trees and Brown Bar-ba-loots in their Bar-ba-loot suits, playing in the shade and eating Truffula fruits. Deciding that the bright tufts on the Truffula trees would make a good Thneed [a versatile ‘Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need’], he cuts down a Truffula tree and reflects that “Little did I know that by chopping down that tree I had just summoned a mystical creature as old as time itself. The legendary, slightly annoying guardian of the forest. The Lorax.” who magically appears out of the stump of the chopped down Truffula tree. The Lorax is a small creature who ‘speaks for the trees’ who tells the Once-ler about the importance of preserving the environment. The Lorax and the Bar-ba-loots try to drive the Once-ler out of the forest, but end up just making him promise not to cut down any more trees.
The Lorax who ‘Speaks for the trees’
However, when the Once-ler finds that there is a ready market for his Thneeds, he starts to cut down more and more Truffula trees to meet demand. The Lorax tries to stop the Once-ler, but he continues to cut down the trees, until the entire forest is gone. After this the Once-ler became a recluse in his Lerkim.
When the Once-ler finally completes his story to Ted, they ponder the small pile of rocks the Lorax left behind, upon which is written the word “Unless”. The story ends with the Once-ler giving Ted the last seed of the tree, which Ted plants and promises to protect, and the Once-ler reminds us of the message that "unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Perceptions of the Cleanliness of Nature
Interestingly, in a recent research article on using nature connection with young people written by Kirsten McEwen et al., entitled ‘This Is What the Colour Green Smells Like!’ they wrote that
“In a smell activity, adolescents were invited to smell leaf litter and soil from the woodland floor; however, this activity was observed to make them uncomfortable and self-conscious, and was therefore omitted from future sessions.”
The researchers suggested in a separate talk that this might have been down to a modern conception that leaf litter and soil were dirty and unwholesome. I was reminded of two lines in The Lorax, one where Ted asks his Mum about ‘real trees’ and she replies “You would rather have some dirty, messy lump of wood that just sticks out of the ground? And it does what? I don’t even know what it does. What’s its purpose?” and another where the Mayor of Thneed-ville, Aloysius O’Hare (who has a factory that sells the inhabitants of Thneed-ville bottled air and who claims that photosynthesis is a made up word) who says, “Folks… The last thing you want around here is trees. They’re filthy! Spewing that sticky, nasty sap all over the place. They bring poisonous ants and stinging bees.”
The Background to The Lorax
According to the Dr. Seuss Website, Theodor (Ted) Seuss Geisel moved to La Jolla, California in the late 1940s. He built his home overlooking the Pacific and was charmed by the town, describing it as a “sleepy village” with lush vegetation and trees growing right up to the coast. However, by the late 1960s, La Jolla was no longer the restful place Ted had come to love. Highways, billboards, and a building boom had radically changed his perspective. The studio where Ted worked looked out on the Pacific with a view framed by beautiful eucalyptus trees, but when developers sought permission to cut down these trees to make way for residential properties, Ted raised his voice in opposition and The Lorax was born.
He wrote The Lorax in 1971, just as the environmental movement was beginning to take hold, the year after the first “Earth Day” was held in New York. On February 13, 1972, California’s San Bernardino County Sun wrote that:
The Lorax is clear and intentional.
”This is one story,” says Geisel, “that I fervently hope will become outmoded — a period piece in our own time. Because that would mean we’ve coped with the threats to our ecology in such a way that the next generation will not be endangered.”
In this highly influential book, Dr. Seuss first wrote the line, “I speak for the Trees”, lending a vital and lasting voice to the growing concern over world conservation. Famously, there was an unsuccessful attempt by the logging industry to ban “The Lorax” in the 1980s.
The Environmental Message in The Lorax
The environmental message in ‘The Lorax’ is about the dangers of unchecked industrialisation and consumerism, and the importance of protecting the natural world. The book depicts a world in which all the trees have been cut down to make way for the factories, driven by consumerism, and which in turn causes the pollution and destruction of the natural world. The Lorax struggles to get the people to understand the importance of preserving the environment before it is too late, but his message is that everyone has the power to make a difference and preserve the planet for future generations.
And The Lorax has inspired generations of activists and young social entrepreneurs to focus on ecology and green initiatives and it is still widely used as a tool for teaching children about environmentalism.
Find out more about The Lorax Project because “the environment is a responsibility we all share, because unless we care a whole awful lot, it’s not going to get better, it’s not.”
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