The Once-ler lingered on in his crumbling residence where he dwelt in great distress, and he pondered over a message the Lorax left behind: a stone slab etched with the word 'Unless'. Then the Lorax, silently, with one 'sad backward glance', lifted himself by his posterior and flew away through the clouds.

Without raw materials, his factory shut down without the factory, his relatives left. But at that very moment, they heard the very last Truffula tree get cut down. Finally the 'smogulous smoke' filled the Swomee Swans's throats with smog, preventing them from singing.) Finally disgruntled by the Lorax, the Once-ler declared his intention to keep expanding his operations. Then the pond that was home to the Humming Fish was filled with toxic waste that clogged their gills. (First, the Brown Bar-ba-loots, which fed on Truffula fruits, were starved. But the Once-ler ignored him, instead calling his relatives to come and work in his factory.Īs the Thneed industry kept expanding, the once beautiful area became choked with pollution, and the Lorax sent away the fauna to find more hospitable habitats. He 'speaks for the trees, for the trees have no tongues' and warned the Once-ler of the consequences of cutting down the Truffula trees. When the Once-ler first arrived at this place, it was a beautiful, pristine valley containing happy, playful fauna (Swomee-Swans, Humming-Fish, and Brown Bar-ba-loots) that spent their days romping around blissfully among 'Truffula trees', colorful woolly trees that spread throughout the area.Įnchanted by these gorgeous trees, the Once-ler built a small shop, where he chopped down a tree and knitted a Thneed, an odd-looking but versatile invention of his, that he insisted 'everyone needs.' By cutting down the tree, however, he summoned the titular Lorax to appear from the stump of a Truffula tree.

Through a 'whisper-ma-phone,' the Once-ler tells the boy what happened. the Street of the Lifted Lorax' to learn why the area is in such a run-down state. A young boy visits a strange, isolated man called the 'Once-ler', who lives 'on the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows.

Pictures of the lorax