The Lorax And The Tragedy Of The Commonsthe Loraxis By Dr. Seuss

he Tragedy of the Commons in The Lorax and Easter IslandThe Tragedy of the commons is a situation in which a publicly owned resource is exploited to such an extent that the resource is ruined. This means that users of the resource canno longer benefit from it. A uniform idea in the tragedy of the commons is that each person does not weigh the effect of their exploitation of the resource enough, resulting in the resource being over-exploited and eventually being destroyed. Two examples of the tragedy of the commons are Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, and the story of Easter Island. Although the parties involved in The Lorax and Easter Island may not have cooperated in the same ways, their environments were similarly exploited, resulting in a tragic loss of the public resource available to them. In The Lorax, the Once-ler stumbles upon a truffula forest which he finds to be perfect for his business. He begins to harvest the resources, but is constantly bothered by the Lorax. The Lorax speaks on behalf of the trees, hoping the Once-ler will halt his destructive behavior, however there is no cooperation between the Once-ler and the Lorax. This is unlike the tribes on Easter Island. The natives of Easter Island needed to trade and cooperate with each other to be able to construct the many large statues. Pakandam stated, “...resources were distributed unequally in various parts of the island, what one region lacked, another had in bountiful scores. This forced trade and cooperation as a natural part of life” (11). Although the parties in The Lorax and Easter Island did cooperate in the same way, they still lead to the exploitation of the available resources.

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is a children's book about greed and destruction. The book is set in the forest of Truffula Trees. The Once-ler was riding through the country in his wagon one day and discovers the beautiful forest of Truffula Trees.

Geisel’s literacy expresses remarkable views on a variety of moralistic issues. Dr.Seuss’s The Lorax (1971) was published at the beginning of the environmental movement (Lebduska, 1994). The Lorax was Dr. Seuss' personal favourite of all his books. He created a story addressing economic and environmental issues without it being dull and driveling. The Lorax, he once explained, “came out of me being angry. In The Lorax I was out to attack what I think are evil things and let the chips fall where they might” (Lebduska, 1994, p.170). The plot is recited from a simple yet environmentally accurate viewpoint. It demonstrates the conflict between natural resources and man-made production, which is the central conflict in the book.

Dr. Seuss story The Lorax is filled with allusions and themes, that reference the Bible, American history, and other books. The Lorax published in 1971, and in the 1970s American history it was the environmental movement and laws were passed to clean the air and water. The story of the Lorax portrayed how nature is something that needs to be protected and not destroyed by big factories. Ted goes on a quest to find a real tree, a truffula tree that the Lorax protects to impress a girl. On his journey, he met the Once-ler, the man who knows what happen to all the truffula trees. Ted also encounters Mr. O’Hare, the mayor of Thneedville and the owner of the biggest company in Thneedville. O’Hare was consumed with making more money and

When Dr. Suess wrote The Lorax it was in response to deforestation if he were alive today I think he would make another version of the Lorax however this time it would be about polluting the ocean. Riding in the with my cousin once I watched him throw a can out of the window. I can remember getting mad at him and asking him what he was doing and all he said was, "someone else will pick it up, it's not like it is a big deal." Well at the time I let it go and thought nothing more of it. Time continued on and when I was in sixth grade my mom and I went to Florida as your driving on a dirt road, how about that drive through meal bag that your spouse can’t know about because you and your supposed to be eating healthy? Or watched someone else throw that spit bottle out the window? Believe it or not things like these examples have an impact on the world. We’ve all heard the reduce, reuse, recycle but why are people so adamant about it? Perfect examples of reasons why people do this can be seen in the ocean ecosystems. More and more of our wastes are ending up in the ocean and harming the animals living there. Innocent animals that just want to survive and thrive aren’t getting the opportunity to try because of trash and litter that floats and sinks in the ocean.

A poet, a teacher, an activist – These are all the things that Theodor Seuss Geisel managed to be. Geisel was born into the German family of Theodor Robert Geisel and Henrietta Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904. He grew up having pride in his German background, but it all changed to shame after he experienced the torment of living through WWI. Despite the discouraging experiences he had during those times, they were not enough to stop the very talented “Dr. Seuss”. Geisel showed many that there were no boundaries to the imagination. Because of the hardships he had to overcome, the impact he left on young children, and the criticism he received from others, Theodor Seuss Geisel will always be remembered as the

Dr. Seuss is probably the American writer who has so far had the greatest impact on children's literature. The intelligent usage of vivid illustrations, imaginative characters, and catchy rhymes made it easy for people who grew up reading these stories to recognize them. However, although the author worked tirelessly at his craft, he is not well-known since he did not seek after personal fame. Most of the fans to his literary materials are not well conversant with the details of his private life. For instance, most people are not aware that Dr. Seuss was not a doctor, but simply added the prefix to his pseudonym to provide credibility to the menagerie of characters in his works (Thompson 21). He worked as a writer and a cartoonist, publishing nearly more than sixty books. Some of the most famous pieces of his work include “Green Eggs and Ham” and the “The Cat in the Hat.”

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”(Dr. Seuss, the Lorax) The childhood of thousands of adults and children alike were all made memorable because of one man. Theodor Seuss Geisel. His use of words and depictions, although with hidden messages, of daily life has molded the imagination of every child.

The tragedy of the commons is a pretty basic concept. So essentially, this theory states that people will use a shared resource to their own self-interests and ultimately “consume” the resource until its value is diminished (Brander, 2014).

The Lorax was published in 1971. It was about the Lorax and the Once-Ler in a truffula tree forest. There was a big conflict because the Once-Ler chopped down lots and lots of the truffula trees. He chopped down the last growing truffula tree. Then a kid comes to the Once-ler’s house and hears the whole story. Then he realized the word “Unless” on a rock. The Once-Ler then sent the last ever truffula tree seed to the boy. The Once-Ler said “Plant a new truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest.” Dr. Seuss wanted the kids to see pollution is bad for you and all the living things. That is why Dr. Seuss is more than nonsense words and rhyming.

Throughout his life Dr. Seuss became a well known child writer. He used various books to bring awareness to bring attention to different problems in the environment. One good example is The Lorax. It shows how one human finds something he can make out of trees, but does not conserve or preserve. He just uses as many trees as he wants because of how many there are. Eventually, it caught up to him. He ran out of trees and with this he ran out of money. Without trees, the town had to run on artificial air because the trees could not produce it. From this lesson, the public could learn as well. Although this book is intended for kids, mature audiences can find a lesson in it as well.

During the Great Depression, it was not uncommon to become morosely secluded while working. Men would go far away from their families in search of any jobs they could get, with only themselves to confide in; colleagues only filling in the void of friends and family partially. Naturally, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, written during this period, would reflect this fact as a major aspect of the story. Loneliness would become the sinew of Of Mice and Men, manifested in some of the story’s main characters: Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. These allusions to loneliness are found throughout the book, mimicking the rampant disease of isolation at the time.

Ultimately the behaviorisms of the commons amount to overusing the resources and misdistribution of all the resources in the environment (Burke 2001). The very same Burke argues that the lack of awareness about the topic of resource degradation and over consumption proves that Hardin’s theory is drastically flawed. The very first idea is the fatalistic belief program that block the actual risk perception. “Humans can not harm the Resource Base” (p.449). The second premise is that the complicity of the concerns regarding the environment blocks the individual awareness of risk. He Concludes that a call for “education and consensus building” (P.472) in raising the environmental risk of awareness.

These days, dangers of global warming, pollution, and landfills are well documented, but not a lot is being done to stop these issues. Problems such as resource depletion, global warming, pollution, extinction, toxic waste in rivers (like the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf Coast), and fracking all pose serious threats to our environment. However, no sure-fire solutions have been introduced to society, so these problems seem only to get worse as time goes on. Serious consequences such as health issues, threats to biodiversity, rising water levels, and depletion of natural resources are the outcomes of mishaps of consumers. We know these issues are bad, but why is it so difficult to take action against them? Well, people look at the world with a short time horizon. Many people view profits versus well being of the planet only with a short-term perspective, not worrying about the future of the earth after they are gone. It seems that there are many reasons leading to the inaction in our society, but a significant issue is collective action failure, otherwise known as “tragedy of the commons.” It is a complex system, mostly filled with misunderstandings that must change on a social level. Collective action failure is an example of market failure. A collective action failure is an idea significant of exhausting resources through overuse. For example, with the issue of recycling, people view it as a good thing because it can help conserve resources. However, people also see recycling as

The inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy; each man is locked into a system that imposes him to increase his herd regardless limitation. The “tragedy of the commons” also shows a strong struggle between individual’s benefit versus community’s benefit. And to the solution to the problem, Garrett Hardin tells his idea from many aspects, namely recognition of necessity, mutual coercion mutually agreed upon, pathogenic effects of conscience.