A Thematic Analysis Of Dr. Seuss 'The Lorax'

All over the world, children and adults alike read and praise Dr. Seuss’ short books with fun rhymes and brilliant colors. Since it’s creation in 1972, The Lorax has been inspiring everyday people to do better for their environment and to make sure being environmentally friendly continues to weave itself through future generations. Despite having been written and published over forty years ago, The Lorax’s message remains vital and important as we continue to feel the effects of earlier environmental degradation. The Lorax is a story about how greed and personal desires can cause drastic impacts, many of which may be negative, and have the potential to ruin the environment. In the beginning of the poem, an unnamed boy goes on a journey up the “Street of the Lifted Lorax” to talk with the Once-ler about who the Lorax is. When the Once-ler, an entrepreneur, arrived in a grove of Truffula Trees, he thought of a highly profitable business venture that involved the silky tufts of the Truffula Trees. As soon as the first of the Truffula Trees was …show more content…
Since the seventies, biodiversity has declined roughly thirty percent and humans have used “one and a half Earth’s every year”. While the colorful and fun depictions of furry animals and the rhyme of the poem can serve as inspiration for some work, The Lorax is not effective in encouraging action. As we continue to fall into environmental and global warming issues, we need something more than a children’s book to inspire change in the way we use resources and how we treat the environment. Dr. Seuss recognized the environmental issues that they were facing at the time but now there must be more action that what is currently happening before the Lorax’s message rings true. Environmental protection needs to happen before the world ends up like the one that the Once-ler lives in, a desperate final attempt at saving the