Banned Books Review #4
Written by nobscricket
“I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees.” Is a phrase I often heard repeated by my biology teacher in 10th grade, he had the entire book memorized and performed it as a monologue on the first day of class. I was amazed; not only is memorizing an entire book an incredible feat, but I had never heard the story before.
For some reason, through the many years I that I have been infatuated with Dr. Seuss, I had never once read the child-friendly tragedy of the Truffula trees and how the were heartlessly all turned into Thneeds. But how I heard of the book is of little consequence, what is important is the fact that this book addresses the horrendous effect of removing one object from the fragile cycle that is needed to maintain environments throughout our little planet.
The idea that everything is connected and thrives off of each other surfaces like roots of a skyscraping tree bulging from the ground in Dr. Seuss’ story narrated by the grayish-toothed Once-ler. He tells of how he chopped down one Truffula tree from the now “far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows/and the wind smells slow and sour when it blows…” to turn into a Thneed which is “a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need…” As the story progresses more Truffula trees are chopped down and more and more habitants of the forest leave until there is nothing left, not even a Truffula tree, and the air is too polluted for anyone to breathe.
The story stresses the importance of not misusing the environment and that all resources run out if we are too anxious to develop.
This book deserves a rating of 5 for its undeniable allusion to the manufacturing world our society has become, and the development of completely three-dimensional characters in the context of a picture book.
The Lorax
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