DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 

The Lorax vs. The Truax



          Today, Americans are more aware of the desecrating effects industry pollution holds on a vulnerable environment. It has been a long-standing issue that has only been getting worse over the years. Dr.Seuss was aware of the outcome human desire for industry expansion held on the environment and in 1971, wrote a children’s book titled The Lorax to address these issues. The Lorax’s premise is of a man known as the Once-ler who cuts down all the trees leaving behind only barren land and pollution. Many adults and children loved this book, especially environmentalists and preservationists, who often used the book to get their message across. However, this angered many others, particularly those in the timber industry who criticized Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax for being used as propaganda and demeaning the timber industry. In response to The Lorax, Terri Birkett, an employee of the Stuart Flooring Company, wrote The Truax in 1995 as a rebuttal. The Truax addresses how the timber company actually helps the environment, as opposed to the negatives views The Lorax presents on how cutting down trees harms it. The Lorax, speaker of the trees, only wanted to inform children to save the environment, but after twenty years of being used as propaganda, the trees decided to speak for themselves.





          Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax discusses the effects on the environment through the Lorax, a mystical animal, and the Once-ler, a business man whose face we never see in the book. A child comes to the Once-ler inquiring why the land is barren and where all the trees have gone. The Once-ler begins to tell him the history of the land and how he was the cause for the world being in its present state. As the story goes, the Once-ler, an entrepreneur, cuts down all the Truffula trees in order to make room for factories to manufacture his product called the Thneed, which is made from the hair of the Truffula tree. The Lorax, speaker of the trees, is summoned and throughout the book continuously warns the Once-ler of the harmful effects of cutting down the Truffula trees. But the Once-ler ignores the Lorax’s warnings and after all the Truffula trees are gone, his company fails, and the environment is left in peril, does he finally come to terms with the consequences of his actions.  In the end, the Once-ler is left with one last seed of a Truffula tree and gives it to the child in the hopes that he will plant the seed and create a better greener world (“Kid’s Book Review: The Lorax).





          The moral of The Lorax, in its simplest terms, is to protect the environment. It is made apparent through the character of the Once-ler whose business destroys all the trees and runs out all the animals only to leave behind barren land filled with filth and pollution. Environmentalists and preservationists praised the book for giving environmentalism a foundation to stem from when it was still in the early stages of trying to become known. Mike Matz from the Pew Environment Group says, “‘The Lorax’ came out in 1971, when the environmental movement was young and growing, and helped crystallize and popularize the ideals and goals of a new generation” (“Trees Have Needs”). Environmentalists and preservationists were thrilled to have an easy-to-read book that could easily teach kids the importance of saving the environment.





         But not everybody was thrilled with The Lorax and its message. In an article written about The Lorax the author states, “People with a preservationist agenda have used the Dr. Seuss book as a tool to indoctrinate schoolchildren” (“Enter, Truax; Exit, Dr. Seuss”). Twenty years after it was published, The Lorax was considered by many to be propaganda because of preservationists using the book for their own personal gain. People in the timber industry have addressed how the book could be a personal attack on the industry. Schools in areas with economic dependency on the timber industry banned The Lorax in local schools and libraries to inhibit children from formulating a negative view on the timber industry (Bonnnie). Audrey Stone Geisel, president of Dr.Seuss’s Enterprise, talks about the controversy surrounding The Lorax. In regards to The Lorax being used as propaganda she says, “I think any and all talk about the environment cannot be written off as propaganda” (qtd. in Bercovici). She believes that The Lorax has a very important message for kids. It strives to inform children about the power they hold and how they can use it to save the environment and Ms. Geisel doesn’t see that message as being controversial (Bercovici).





          Regardless of Ms. Geisel’s hopes for the The Lorax, it has gained the negative attention of many people, in particular, the timber industry. After witnessing college students use The Lorax to preach a liberal environmentalist view to children, Terri Birkett, an employee for the Stuart Flooring Company, felt the urge to inform children about the other side to The Lorax - the timber industry’s side. She said, “I don’t think Dr. Seuss really meant it to be an all-encompassing statement on losing forests as much as encouraging kids to be in favor of planting trees and things like that. But it was starting to be used by people who had an environmental slant to scare kids that we were losing our trees” (Birkett qtd. in “Enter, Truax; Exit, Dr. Seuss”). She began working on a children’s book that would highlight the positive effects the timber industry had on the environment as well as society. In 1995, her book The Truax was published.

 



          The Truax tells the story of Guardbark, the protector of trees, and a logger known as the Truax. The Guardbark sees the Truax cutting down trees and angrily confronts him, therefore, giving the Truax an opportunity to explain to the Gaurdbark the benefits of forest management on the environment. The Truax offers good counter arguments to The Lorax on how the timber industry prevents forest fires, replants cut down trees, promotes biodiversity, and the beneficial uses of timber in our everyday society (“Enter Truax; Exit Dr.Seuss”). The ending of The Truax has the Guardbark giving his approval of Truax and the timber industry all together. He leaves the Truax with some parting words, “And best of all, I think things ARE NOT quite as bad as they seemed!” (Birkett 30). The last words at the ending of the book show the true intent of Terri Brikett. It gives the rebuttal to The Lorax for portraying anyone who cuts down trees as bad for the environment, whereas, her book The Truax promotes the timber industry as good.  





          The problem with The Truax’s rebuttal is the truth behind some of the Truax’s claims. He claims that “forest management promotes biodiversity and that greenhouse gases are easily taken in by young trees”(Meadows), but today we can find fallacies within these claims. As Donella Meadows, professor at Dartmouth College puts it:





Are those claims wrong? Yes, because it takes centuries for young trees to re-absorb the greenhouse gases released from logging the old-growth forest. And yes, because logging at the scale and frequency preferred by our forest-products industry may please the Pink-spotted Lark, but it deeply disrupts natural population balances and can eliminate species  that live only in old-growth forest. (Meadows)





          She implies that the timber industry cuts down a larger number of trees than they can replant and the forests can reproduce. She does not believe The Truax’s claims are strong enough to defend its argument towards The Lorax. She ends by saying, “If I were the family of Dr. Seuss, I’d sue” (Meadows). Meadows also addresses the nonchalant attitude The Truax has towards endangered species. The book states, “Would anyone mind if we lost, say, a tick that carried a germ that made Cuddlebears sick? Or what about something that's really quite nice, like the Yellow-Striped Minnow that lives in Lake Zice?” (Birkett 20). Meadows states, “That’s a passage to deepen every fear environmentalists harbor about the forest industry” (Meadows). To broaden the perspective, deforestation not only affects endangered species, but all species. It raises a great risk of wiping out hundreds of species that are beneficial to the environment, biodiversity, and to humankind. One article states, “Animal Research [is] at the forefront of modern medicine” (“Post Detail”). Animals prove vital to the development of testing and researching modern medicines that could one day cure disease and illnesses. Although certain species are endangered, with deforestation, it won’t be long until almost all species are endangered including our own. The timber industry may disregard certain animals and species as being unimportant, but all life is important to maintain a healthy ecosystem.





          Although one can find fault with some of the things the Truax says, as stated earlier, he offers insight into the benefits of timber harvesting. As stated in The Truax, we have twice as many trees today than we did in the 50s due to management and replanting. Forest fires, which were once detrimental to forest life, are now kept at bay because of human intervention, saving thousands of animals and trees (Meadows). And as one source writes, “After all, sustaining healthy forests sometimes requires cutting down trees and removing invasive species” (The Lorax May ‘Speak For the Trees’”). The Truax offers both the pros and cons of timber management, but unfortunately one can see that the cons outweigh the pros.





          Through his colorful illustrations and unique characters, Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax addressed the issues of industry pollution on the environment by presenting the idea of a world without trees and the ill effects that could hold on society. Although Dr. Seuss’s message in The Lorax was to save the environment, people in the timber industry thought otherwise. In 1995, Terri Birkett wrote The Truax as her rebuttal to The Lorax and criticized the idea of cutting down trees as bad. However, the timber industry failed to see that Dr. Seuss also criticized corporate greed and excessive consumerism at the expense of natural resources; the timber industry is motivated by the profit of cutting down trees to fulfill daily demands of consumer products and goods. Opposed to viewing The Lorax as propaganda, one could say that The Truax is propaganda.  While Seuss, of course, profited from the publication of The Lorax, it seems apparent that demeaning the timber industry was not his motivation; after all, he was not funded by environmentalists to spread their word. But Terri Birkett was funded by the Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association, a company that delegates and manages timber harvesting. Rather than view The Lorax as propaganda and accuse Dr. Seuss of having propagandistic ways, the timber industry needs to see the error in their ways. After all, Dr. Seuss himself said that, “The Lorax doesn’t say lumbering is immoral. I live in a house made out of wood and print books made on paper. It’s a book about going easy on what we got, it’s anti-pollution, anti-greed” (qtd. in Drennon).

 

 

 

Works Cited



Bercovici, Jeff. “Dr. Seuss’s Widow Says ‘The Lorax’ is Education Not Propaganda”.      Forbes.com. Forbes.com LLC, 2 March 2012. Web 4 March 2012.



Birkett, Terri. The Truax. Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association, 1994. Print.



Bonnie, Jacobs. “The Lorax~Bonnie’s Review”. Bannedbookschallenge.blogspot.com. n.p, 05 February 2008. Web. 11 March 2012.



Drennon, Kyle. “NBC Uses ‘The Lorax’ to Push Environmentalism, Mocks Idea of Movie Having Agenda” Newsbusters.org. NewsBusters, 29 February 2012. Web. 12 March 2012.



“Enter, Truax; Exit, Dr. Seuss” Timberlinemag.com. Industrial Reporting, Inc., 1 November 1999. Web. 28 February 2012.  



“Kid’s Book Review: The Lorax” generationgreen.org. n.p, n.d. Web 11 March 2012.

Madonna, John J. “What’s A Truax? Well, I’m Glad You Asked Let Me Tell You!” aadl.org. N.p., Web. 28 February 2012.



Matz, Mike. “Trees Have Needs” Pewenvironment.org. The Pew Charitable Trusts, 02 March  2012. Web. 12 March 2012.



Meadows, Donella. “The Lorax and the Truax—Hey Can We Talk?” Sustainer.org. Sustainability Institute, N.d. Web. 28 February 2012.



Nix, Steve. “The Lorax and The Truax” Forestry.about.com. About.com, 1 January 2010. Web. 28 February 2012.



“Our Planet is Dying…And We Are the Culprits” Chokingplanet.wordpress.com. WordPress, 26 February 2009. Web. 28 February 2012. 



“Post detail: Animal Research at the Forefront of Modern Medicine” Pro-test.org.uk. Pro Test, 09 July 2010. Web. 06 March 2012



“The Lorax May ‘Speak For the Trees’, But His Message Ignores Real Life” Farmanddairy.com. Farm and Dairy, 06 March 2012. Web. 06 March 2012.

 

 

 



DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.