Cover of The Lorax

This article is about the Dr. Seuss children's story. For the robotics project, see LORAX (robot); for the drug see lorazepam.

The Lorax 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' works, most of the creatures mentioned are made-up for the book. Image File history File links The_Lorax. ... Image File history File links The_Lorax. ... The LORAX rover Nomad being tested on Lake Mascoma with its wind turbine deployed The Life on Ice: Robotic Antarctic Explorer or LORAX is an experimental robotics project being developed by the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, supported by NASA. The intent of the project is to create an... Lorazepam is a drug of the benzodiazepine class and it has, to different extents, each of the five intrinsic benzodiazepine drug molecule effects: sedative/hypnotic, muscle relaxant, anxiolytic, amnesic and anticonvulsant. ... Childrens Story is a song by Slick Rick. ... Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was a famous American writer and cartoonist best known for his classic childrens books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and One Fish Two Fish... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. ... The Once-ler is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss in the childrens story The Lorax. ...

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 commonly. // For a comparison of parable with other kinds of stories, see Myth, legend, fairy tale, and fable. ...

The book can also be seen as an allegory, since the situation in the story is specifically parallel to events unfolding in the United States' Pacific Northwest at the time of its writing. In particular, the title character bears a close resemblance to the Northern Spotted Owl, an indicator species for the health of the Douglas Fir and Coast Redwood forests, and the Brown Barbaloots resemble the shrews and voles of that forest which comprise most of the owl's diet. In the story, the Lorax is "in charge of" the Brown Barbaloots. In its forest habitat, the owl regulates the population of the shrews and voles by its predation. The particular vole which the owl eats subsists mostly on truffles which grow only among the roots of well-established Douglas Fir and Coast Redwood trees. Research into this food chain was ongoing at the time The Lorax was written. Allegory of Music by Filippino Lippi. ... Trinomial name Strix occidentalis caurina The Northern Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis caurina, is one of three Spotted Owl subspecies. ... Species See text Douglas-fir is the common name applied to coniferous trees of the genus Pseudotsuga in the family Pinaceae. ... Binomial name Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl. ...

Synopsis

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 the 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 scoffed at 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." It has been suggested that Pollutant be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Haze be merged into this article or section. ...

References in popular culture

• The "Lorax" has become a popular metaphor for those concerned about the human impact on the environment. The book is featured on the inside layout of Rage Against the Machine's Evil Empire LP.^[1] The Lorax is also referenced in activist musician Michael Franti's song 'East To The West' on the album "Yell Fire" ^[2]

• Lorax Manner (not Manor) is the name of a student housing cooperative in Eugene, Oregon. ^[3]

• The 'Springfield Millionaire's Club' in the Simpsons is mentioned as serving 'Premium Lorax Steak' along with other rare foods such as Bluefin Tuna.

• In Aaron McGruder's television series, The Boondocks, the cold business man's name is Ed Wuncler, Sr., which may be taken from The Lorax character, the Once-ler.

• The Lorax was referenced in Sermon #137 on TheGospelAccordingToLarry.com and the book The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian

• Chicago-based punk band The Broadways wrote a song called "I Hear Things Are Just As Bad Down In Lake Erie" (the title almost a direct quote from a line in the book) for their album Broken Star. The song is a bitter editorial on the environment, industry and people's attitude to each other in spite of the two.

Rage Against the Machine (also Rage and RATM) is a Grammy Award-winning American rock band, noted for their blend of hip hop, hard rock, punk and funk as well as their revolutionary politics and lyrics. ... Michael Franti (born April 21, 1966, in Oakland, California) is an American poet, musician, and composer of African, American Indian, Italian, and German descent. ... A housing co-operative is a legal entity, usually a corporation, that owns real estate, one or more residential buildings. ... It has been suggested that Track Town, USA be merged into this article or section. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Aaron McGruder (born May 29, 1974 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip about two young African-American brothers from inner-city Chicago now living with their grandfather in a sedate suburb. ... For the originating definition of Boondocks, see Boondock. ... A character in the Boondocks television series in the role of the arrogant white imperialist/filthy rich industrialist of the old school. Father of Ed Wuncler III. The name Wuncler may derive from Dr. Seuss character The Once-ler (from The Lorax), an entrepreneur who despoils the verdant fields of... The Gospel According to Larry is a comedic political fictional novel by Janet Tashjian. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... The Broadways were a short-lived pop-punk band from Chicago, Illinois. ... Broken Star is a 1998 album by The Broadways. ...

Controversy

The Lorax is arguably Seuss' most controversial work, having been banned in some schools and libraries for its anti-forestry industry content.^[4] Several timber industry groups sponsored the creation of a book called The Truax, ^[5] offering a logging-friendly perspective to an anthropomorphic tree known as the Guardbark. Just as in The Lorax, the book consists of an argument between two persons. The logging industry representative emphasises their efficiency and re-seeding efforts whereas the Guardbark, a straw man of the environmentalist movement much like the Once-ler is for big business, refuses to listen and repeatedly lashes out. Many societies have banned certain books. ... Logging is the process in which trees are cut down usually as part of a timber harvest. ... A straw man argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponents position. ...

The line "I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie" was removed in 1974 following the clean-up of Lake Erie.^[6] Lake Erie (pronounced ) is the eleventh largest lake on Earth[2] and, of the five Great Lakes of North America, it is the fourth largest by surface area, the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume. ...

Adaptations

The book was made into an animated television special in 1972, produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and starring Eddie Albert and Bob Holt. 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. The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these 6 frames. ... A television special is a television program, typically a short film or television movie, which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. ... DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (sometimes abbreviated to DFE) was a Hollywood-based animation production company, active from 1963 to 1981. ... Eddie Albert, born Edward Albert Heimberger, (April 22, 1906 â€“ May 26, 2005) was a popular Oscar and Emmy Award-nominated American stage, film, character actor, gardener and humanitarian activist, perhaps best known for playing Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, or for his role in the 1960s television comedy... Bob Holt was the voice of The Great Grape Ape. ...

Publication

• ISBN 000195458X (cased)
• ISBN 000170012X (paperback)
• ISBN 0394823370 (Random House)
• ISBN 0007173113 (paperback)

See also

• 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.

The Man Who Planted Trees (also known as The Story of Elzéard Bouffier; The Most Extraordinary Character I Ever Met; and The Man who Planted Hope and Reaped Happiness) is an allegorical tale by Jean Giono about how a shepherd restores the ruined ecosystem of an isolated valley by...

References

1. ^ http://www.ratm.com/
2. ^ http://yellfire.net/
3. ^ http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuosch/lorax.php
4. ^ http://library.dixie.edu/new/whybanned.html#TheLorax
5. ^ http://www.nofma.org/Portals/0/Publications/TRUAX.pdf
6. ^ http://www.glhabitat.org/news/glnews450.html