History Literature / TheLorax

* DeadpanSnarker: The Once-ler. "Huh? Oh...It's Nature boy. The garden club member."

** SugarApocalypse: ..and became this.

* TheAtoner: The Once-ler.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler: 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: 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 tells the Onceler family shortly after they move in that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to sprout, and ten more years for that seed to grow.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: "Huh? Oh...It's Nature boy. The garden club member."

* PollutedWasteland: The land that was once populated by Truffula trees and various animals becomes a one when all the trees are cut down, sludge is dumped into the water and pollutants are pumped into the air.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than other Dr. Seuss books, surprisingly. It's content discusses the effects of using up natural resources, such as trees, and not being able to replace them. However, there was 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.

* [[spoiler:TheBadGuyWins: Depressingly so.]]

* AmbiguouslyHuman: The Once-ler, though only in the sense that you never see any uncovered part of him.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler: 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: UNLESS. If the boy can regrow the forest and protect it, maybe the Lorax will come back]].

* HeelFaceTurn: Nearly happens in the TV special following the Once-ler's second IgnoredEpiphany (see below). But then, it's averted, ''hard,'' when the Once-ler's secretary informs him that the price of his company's stock had gone up more than $27. At that point, he goes into his tirade.

''The Lorax'' was adapted into a TV special in 1972 by Creator/DePatieFreleng Enterprises and featured Eddie Albert and Bob Holt as the voices of the two main characters of the story. A [[WesternAnimation/TheLorax feature-length film]] from the producers of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' was released in 2012, with Danny [=DeVito=] as the title character.

!!!''The Lorax'' provides examples of:

''The Lorax'' is a story written and illustrated by DrSeuss that was first published in 1971. It is an environmentally-oriented story about a person named Once-ler (shown only as a pair of 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.

''The Lorax'' was adapted into a TV special in 1972 by {{DePatie-Freleng Enterprises}} and featured Eddie Albert and Bob Holt as the voices of the two main characters of the story. A [[WesternAnimation/TheLorax feature-length film]] from the producers of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' was released in 2012, with Danny [=DeVito=] as the title character.

* VoiceForTheVoiceless: The Lorax, who speaks for the trees.

* [[HumansAreBastards Once-lers Are Bastards]]: They're pretty much the stand-in for humans in this story. 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. (This is made more explicit in the film, where the Once-ler is a human.)

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The Lorax's line "I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie" was removed from the book in 1985 after two research associates from the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss about the clean-up of Lake Erie. However, the line is kept in the 1972 TV version (it is spoken by one of the Humming Fish), even in the VHS and DVD releases.

* LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: Before the events of the story the Once-ler and his relatives ran a lucrative, though highly destructive, business turning the foliage of the Truffula Trees into Thneeds. When the last(?) Truffula Tree is felled, however, the Thneed factories shut down and the Once-ler's relatives leave for new ventures. By the time the story begins, all that remains of the forest is a field of tree stumps, the ruins of the Thneed factories, wild weeds (call Grickal Grass) growing, and the Once-ler himself. The Once-ler has become a bitter, sad old man who sits around in his home, sometimes telling his and the Lorax's story to passerbys in the hope that they may be able to fix his terrible mistakes.

* LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: Before the events of the story the Once-ler and his relatives ran a lucrative, though highly destructive, business turning the foliage of the Truffula Trees into Thneeds. When the last(?) Truffula Tree is felled, however, the Thneed factories shut down and the Once-ler's relatives leave for new ventures. By the time the story begins, all that remains of the forest is a field of tree stumps, the ruins of the Thneed factories, wild weeds (call Grickal Grass) growing, and the Once-ler himself.

* HopeSpot: The Once-ler managed to save one Truffla seed and gives it to the boy who was listening to his story. Telling him to plant it and start a new forest in the hopes the Lorax and the animals that once lived there will come back.

''The Lorax'' was adapted into a TV special in 1972 by {{DePatie-Freleng Enterprises}} and featured Eddie Albert and Bob Holt as the voices of the two main characters of the story. A [[Film/TheLorax feature-length film]] from the producers of ''DespicableMe'' was released in 2012, with Danny [=DeVito=] as the title character.

''The Lorax'' is a story written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss that was first published in 1971. It is an environmentally-oriented story about a person named Once-ler (shown only as a pair of 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.