History Literature / TheLorax

[[caption-width-right:350:He's the Lorax. He speaks for the trees.]]
->''Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better. It's not.''

!!Tropes:

''The Lorax'' is a story written and illustrated by Creator/DrSeuss that was first published in 1971. It is an [[GreenAesop environmentally-oriented]] story about a person named Once-ler (shown only as a pair of green arms) who caused devastation to the land and was constantly scolded for it by a creature called the Lorax, whose warnings the Once-ler had ignored until it was too late.

** HeroAntagonist: If you consider the Once-ler a VillainProtagonist of this story, then the Lorax would fill this role.

* RagsToRiches: The Once-ler sold his first Thneed for $3.98, and from there, he kept biggering and biggering his production and his money...
** RichesToRags: ...Until the last Truffula Tree was cut down, and it all came to an end. Now he's charging 15 cents and a nail and the shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail for people to listen to his talk about the Lorax.

* PyrrhicVillainy: The Once-ler starts off with a factory and even makes a super axe hacker to chop down the Truffula trees four times as fast when the stock market quotes Thneeds, Inc. as up by 27 5/8 points... and then, just as the last Truffula tree has been cut down, the Lorax gave a sad backward glance and lifted himself by the seat of his pants through the smog clouds as the animals have migrated out of what was once paradise, and the Once-ler is left all alone with the lingering industrial waste pollution and the ruins of his abandoned factory.

* PyrrhicVictory: The Once-ler starts off with a factory and even makes a super axe hacker to chop down the Truffula trees four times as fast when the stock market quotes Thneeds, Inc. as up by 27 5/8 points... and then, just as the last Truffula tree has been cut down, the Lorax gave a sad backward glance and lifted himself by the seat of his pants through the smog clouds as the animals have migrated out of what was once paradise, and the Once-ler is left all alone with the lingering industrial waste pollution and the ruins of his abandoned factory.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with [[DarkestHour the forest gone, the animals gone, the settlers gone, the city gone, the factory gone, and the Lorax gone. Only the Once-ler remains, who regrets his actions. However, there is one ray of hope: a small pile of rocks with one word. UNLESS. If the boy can regrow the forest and protect it, maybe the Lorax will come back. What makes this even more depressing in the animated version is that the Lorax attempts to tell the Onceler family shortly after they move in that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to sprout, and ''at least'' ten more years for the sapling to grow. (It may well be more than that, but we never find out because the Lorax starts coughing in the middle of his speech because of all the car exhaust.)]]

* BigBad: The Once-Ler, whose greed ruins an entire ecosystem.

* DecoyProtagonist: Despite the titular character, the story is really about the Once-Ler. The Lorax basically represents the Once-Ler's conscience, something to tell him he knows what is the right thing to do, but his production of business continues to eventually lead to his great downfall.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The Onceler and his family. They consume the territory of all its Truffula Trees and then move on when there is no more, leaving the once flourishing land a deserted polluted mess.

** Also if the boy does plant the seed, will it bring back all the forest animals.

* SugarBowl: The land started out as this... and became a SugarApocalypse by the time the Onceler's story ends.

* TragicVillain: The Once-ler was just a simple, ambitious entrapanuer looking to make an good business, only for his unchecked desire to utterly destroy the land. By the time of the FramingDevice, he's a broken, remorseful recluse.

* AllForNothing: The Once-ler's justifications for refusing to close his factory are that he'd have to lay off all his workers and destroy the local economy. But once the last of the Truffula trees has been cut down, things collapse anyway: the factory shuts down and the area becomes a ghost town.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The Lorax is white and the Once-ler and his family are black in this moral dillema.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler: [[DarkestHour the forest gone, the animals gone, the settlers gone, the city gone, the factory gone, and the Lorax gone]]. Only the Once-ler remains, who regrets his actions. However, there is one ray of hope: a small pile of rocks with one word. UNLESS. If the boy can regrow the forest and protect it, maybe the Lorax will come back. What makes this even more depressing in the animated version is that the Lorax attempts to tell the Onceler family shortly after they move in that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to sprout, and ''at least'' ten more years for the sapling to grow. (It may well be more than that, but we never find out because the Lorax starts coughing in the middle of his speech because of all the car exhaust.)]]

* HeelRealization: The Once-ler in the end [[spoiler:after the forest's destruction.]] By the time the boy visits him, he's had plenty of time to reflect on his mistakes.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than other Dr. Seuss books, surprisingly. Its content discusses the effects of using up natural resources, such as trees, and not being able to replace them. However, there is still a glimmer of hope in the form of the last Truffula tree seed and the implication that the trees and the Lorax will return.