The Lorax Reaction Paper

The Lorax A. Summary Theodore â€Å"Ted† Wiggins, an idealistic 12-year-old boy, lives in â€Å"Thneedville†, a walled city that, aside from the citizens, is completely artificial: everything is made of plastic, metal, or synthetics. Ted sets out to find a  real  tree for his friend Audrey. His energetic grandmother suggests he speak with the Once-ler about this, and he discovers that their city has been closed off from the outside world, which is a contaminated and empty wasteland. The Once-ler agrees to tell Ted about the trees if he listens to his story over multiple visits.Ted agrees, even after the mayor of Thneedville, Aloysius O'Hare, who is also the greedy proprietor of a bottled  oxygen  company, confronts the boy and pressures him to stay in town. Over the course of the movie, Ted, with the encouragement of his grandmother, continues to sneak out of O'Hare's sight and learns more of the history of the trees. Over the visits, the Once-ler recounts the s tory of how he departed his family to make his fortune. In a lush Truffula Tree forest, he met the Lorax.He is a grumpy yet charming orange creature who served as guardian of the land. At first, the Once-ler had a plan to chop down the trees. Eventually, he promised not to chop another tree down. The young businessman's Thneed invention soon became a major success and the Once-ler's family arrived to participate in the business. Keeping his promise at first, the Once-ler continued Thneed production by harvesting the tufts themselves in a sustainable manner. Unfortunately, his greedy and lazy relatives convinced him to resume logging as a more efficient gathering method.Breaking his promise, the Once-ler's  deforestation  spiraled into a mass overproduction. Flush with wealth, the Once-lerrationalized his short sighted needs into arrogant self-righteousness and the helpless protests of the Lorax could not stop him. The Once-ler polluted the sky, river and landscape, until finally the last Truffula Tree fell outside, and the Once-lerrealized what he had done while making the region uninhabitable with his business's pollution.With that, the Once-ler was left ruined and abandoned by his own family and became a  recluse  with the creation and solation of Ted's town that came under young Mr. O'Hare's control, giving him the plan to sell fresh air with the absence of trees. Eventually, the Lorax sends the animals away before departing himself into the sky, leaving a stonecut word: â€Å"Unless†. At the end of the story, the Once-ler understands the meaning behind the Lorax's last message, and gives Ted a gift of the last Truffula seed in hopes of planting it to regrow the forest. Ted's desire to impress Audrey is now a personal mission to remind his town of the importance of nature.O'Hare, determined not to have trees undercut his business, takes heavy-handed steps such as covering Audrey's nature paintings, closing off the door that Ted uses to see th e Once-ler and forcibly searching Ted's room for the seed. Ted enlists his family and Audrey to help plant the seed, which has begun to germinate after coming into contact with water. O'Hare and his employees pursue the  dissidents  until they manage to elude him and reach the town center. Unfortunately, their attempt to plant the seed is interrupted by O'Hare who rallies the population to stop them.To convince them otherwise, Ted takes an  earthmover  and rams down a section of the city wall to reveal the environmental destruction outside. Horrified at the sight and inspired by Ted's conviction, the crowd defies O'Hare with his own henchmen expelling him from the town. The seed is planted, and Audrey kisses Ted on the cheek. Time passes and the land is starting to recover; the trees are regrowing, the animals are returning, and the redeemed Once-ler is happily reunited with the Lorax. B. SettingThe story took place in â€Å"Thneedville†, a walled city that, aside fro m the citizens, is completely artificial: everything is made of plastic, metal, or synthetics. The setting is a polluted town where trees don't grow and fresh air is sold in jars. C. Characters Ted- a young boy who is out to win the heart of his pretty neighbor Audrey. He has a caring and innocent nature, and he is moved by the story the Once-ler tells. He is also a resourceful and determined kid, so he continues to fight for the chance to see a real tree, even when he is threatened by the greedy businessman O'Hare.Audrey- an artistic girl who wants nothing more than to see a real tree. When she conveys her dream to Ted, he determines to make sure her dream comes true. Grammy Norma- Ted's grandmother tells Ted to go outside the town and speak with the Once-ler and learn about what happened to the trees. Once-ler–started out as a musically talented and good-natured guy. But, when he refuses to heed the warnings of the Lorax, the Once-ler makes a decision that leads him down a dark and greedy road full of regret. The Lorax- a grumpy but charming orange creature who speaks for the trees.Although he sounds quite gruff, he has a lot of love packed into his little body. He even finds a way to have compassion for the Once-ler, who refuses to heed the Lorax's warnings. Mr. Aloysius O’Hare- the mayor of Thneedville and head of the â€Å"O'Hare Air† company  who doesn’t want the trees to come back because they would ruin his business, which is selling bottled air. D. Problem / Conflict The conflict of the story is the Lorax, who clearly symbolizes Mother Nature’s response to our own abuse of the environment.The Lorax literally speaks for both the trees and the animals of the land. He repeatedly warns Once-ler of the damage he is doing just like Mother Nature warns us when we damage the environment. The Bar-ba-loots are the first among the native animals to get pushed out by the destruction done by Once-ler. The other animals flee as a result of the pollution, and each are clearly presented by the Lorax as a warning to Once-ler, just as Mother nature presents us with the warnings of red tides, ozone pollution, and increasing numbers of endangered species. E.Resolution The boy obviously symbolizes the story’s solution to the problem created by the Once-lers of our world. The story opens with the curious boy who asks questions and is willing to pay the price to learn the answers. He represents the hope of the next generation. He listens to the Once-ler’s entire story showing how much he cares about the knowledge that Once-ler can give him. When Once-ler finishes the story, he willingly accepts the challenge of repairing the land of the Truffula as is seen when he raises his hands to catch the last Truffula seed.Seuss demonstrates his belief that today’s children truly are the solution to our own environmental issues by allowing that boy to be the spark that helps Once-ler figure out the puzzli ng message left by the Lorax. When he sees the potential represented by the boy, he willingly offers both resources and advice to make the boy’s challenge possible. F. Moral Lesson The  movie has a strong environmental theme. In today’s â€Å"disposable â€Å"generation the value of things is greatly diminished. Children grow up with abundance of â€Å"stuff† and food and quickly learn that â€Å"it’s easier to buy a new one that to fix the old one. The movie stresses the importance of valuing things and the negative aspects of wasting. It is about the power of one person to change the world and make a difference. It takes the audience in and makes the audience think about what the future might look like as we continue on the path of environmental destruction.The movie asks the audience to dream bigger and to reach for the impossible. A young boy living in a polluted town visits a strange reclusive man called the Once-ler â€Å"on the far end of tow n where the Grickle-grass grows†¦ n the Street of the Lifted Lorax†, who never appears in full onscreen; only his limbs are shown. The boy pays the Once-ler fifteen cents, a nail, and the shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail to explain why the area is in such a run-down state. The Once-ler explains to the boy (shown in  flashback) that he arrived in a beautiful, pristine valley containing happy, playful fauna that spent their days romping around blissfully among â€Å"Truffula trees†. The Once-ler proceeded to cut down the Truffula trees to gather raw material to knit â€Å"Thneeds,† a comically versatile invention of his, â€Å"which everyone needs†.Thneeds can be used as a shirt, a sock, a glove, a hat, a carpet, a pillow, a sheet, or a curtain. By cutting down the tree, however, he summoned the titular Lorax, who was â€Å"shortish and oldish and brownish and mossy †¦ with a voice that was sharpish and bossy†, to appear from the stump of a Truffula tree. He â€Å"speaks for the trees, for the trees have no tongues† and warned the Once-ler of the consequences of cutting down the truffula trees, but the Once-ler ignored him, instead calling his relatives to come and work in his factory.Soon the once beautiful area became choked with pollution and the Lorax sent away the fauna to find more hospitable habitats. Confronted by the Lorax, the Once-ler declared his intention to keep â€Å"biggering† his operations, but at that very moment, they â€Å"heard the tree fall. The very last Truffula tree of them all. † Without raw materials, his factory shut down; without the factory, his relatives left. Then the Lorax, silently, with one â€Å"very sad, sad backward glance†, lifted himself by the seat of his pants and flew away through the clouds.The Once-ler lingered on in his crumbling residence, living in seclusion and remorse, while pondering over a message the Lorax left behind: a s tone slab etched with the word â€Å"Unless†. In the present, the Once-ler says that he now realizes that the Lorax means that  unless  someone cares, the situation will not improve. The Once-ler then gives the boy the last Truffula seed and tells him to plant it, saying that â€Å"Truffula Trees are what everyone needs† and hoping that, if the boy grows a whole forest of the trees, â€Å"the Lorax, and all of his friends may come back. â€Å"