<p> The Lorax</p><p>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p><p>The Lorax (ISBN 0-394-82337-0) 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. As in most of Dr. Seuss' work, most of the creatures mentioned are made-up for the book.</p><p>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.</p><p>The Lorax is arguably Seuss' most controversial work, having been banned in some schools and libraries for its political content. [1] Synopsis</p><p>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 his 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</p><p>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.</p><p>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."</p><p>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.</p><p>A possible critical interpretation of the text understands the Lorax as a discursant in a Habermasian system of deliberative democracy. In much modern environmental political discourse, nonhuman perspectives are ignored; the Lorax speaks for the trees, overcoming this obstacle toward ideal conditions of discourse. Trivia</p><p> 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. </p><p> Several timber industry groups sponsored the creation of a book called The Truax, [2] about a logging- friendly creature that talks reason and convinces environmentalists to pipe down and love logging. </p><p> 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. </p><p> The book was made into a rock opera [3] in mid-2006 by Matt Vick. </p><p> The book is featured on the inside layout of Rage Against The Machine's Evil Empire LP.[4] </p><p> The book was one of Dr. Seuss' personal favorites.[citation needed] </p><p> The Lorax is referenced in activist musician Michael Franti's song 'East To The West' on the album "Yell Fire" [5]  Lorax Manor is the name of a student housing cooperative in Eugene, Oregon. See also</p><p> The Man Who Planted Trees, a book about a man who singlehandedly does the same kind of task the boy was asked to do, and succeeds. References</p><p>1. ^ http://library.dixie.edu/new/whybanned.html#TheLorax 2. ^ http://www.pcdf.org/meadows/truax.html 3. ^ http://myspace.com/theloraxrockopera 4. ^ http://www.ratm.com/ 5. ^ http://yellfire.net/ </p>