The Bottomless Pit: Greed and Loneliness in The Lorax “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without reaching satisfaction.” Erich Fromm expresses how greed can take over a person’s life. In Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, The Once-ler travels to a land with the most beautiful trees he has ever laid eyes on. He is mesmerized by the vibrant sounds and colors that engulf him as he enters this paradise. The true joy he feels in this state quickly shifts, as the Once-ler feels a need for something much greater. His need for materialistic items rather than true joy ends up taking everything he once loved about this paradise. He copes with his sadness and anger towards what he has done by burying his …show more content…
In the beginning of The Lorax, the Once-ler enters a land that he wonders upon. In this land he finds a true happiness amongst the scenery. This is expressed when he says, “But those trees! Those trees! Those Truffula Trees! All my life I’d been searching for trees such as these. The touch of their tufts was much softer than silk. And they had the sweet smell of fresh buttery milk. I felt a great leaping of joy in my heart.” (74-83). In this moment, the Once-ler is experiencing true joy. His love for the trees overwhelms his senses and allows him to feel whole in this idyllic environment that he has dreamed about. The scene quickly changes when just moments later, the Once-ler no longer focuses on the things that he loves about the land that he has found but rather focuses on what he can gain from it. “I knew just what I’d do! I unloaded my cart. in no time at all, I had built a small shop. Then I shopped down a Truffula Tree with one chop. And with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed, I took the soft tuft and I knitted a Thneed”(84-89). Instead of focusing on the joy and happiness that he has found in the land of the trees, the Once-ler yearns for more. His materialistic values lead him to begin his path toward his greedy …show more content…
Even though the once-ler buries his feelings in his business. The Lorax sends more and more of the animals that the Once-ler loves away, leaving the Once-ler more invested in growing his business. This Once-ler goes from being sad to incredibly angry. This is reflected when he says, “And then I got mad. I got terribly mad. I yelled at the Lorax, “ Now listen here, Dad! All you do is yap-yap and say, ‘Bad! Bad!Bad! Bad!’ Well, I have my rights, sir, and I’m telling you I intend to go on doing just what I do! And, for your information, you Lorax, I’m figgering on biggering and Biggering and BIGGERING” (210-220). The sadness that the Once-ler buries into his business, when the lorax kept taking away the animals he once loved began to anger him. The Once-ler was so invested in the materialistic items that he forgot the beauty of the land that he took over. This greed and anger quickly overwhelmed his life leaving him with less of the things that he originally loved. The longer his greed overwhelms him, the more the Once-ler loses the joy that he once had until soon everything that he has is gone. “ And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack! From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall. The very last Truffula Tree of them all!” (223-226). Everything that the Once-ler had been
Money can cause people to act selfish and arrogant, especially when they have so much money they do noteven know what to spend it on. In the novel,
In today's world getting enraged and angry won't make somebody change their mind on anything, instead getting angry just causes more conflict. According to The Lorax on page 2, the text states, "He was very upset as he shouted and puffed-- 'What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula Tuft.'" Maybe the Once-Ler and the Lorax could have made a deal. A deal stating that maybe the Once-Ler has to plant a tree for every tree he chops down, but the Lorax immediately comes off angry and overprotective. The Lorax's rage just made the Once-Ler want to cut down even more trees. Horton stayed calm and just stayed nice and kind and in the end it all worked out for him. In addition to the Lorax not being generous he also wasn't persistent at all. According to The Lorax, the Once-Ler states, "And that Lorax? He didn't show up anymore." (Page 2). This quote shows that the Lorax wasn't persistent because after the Once-Ler and the Lorax had their first encounter the Lorax didn't come to yell in anger at the Once-Ler anymore when he should have asked the Once-Ler to please leave or just come to an agreement with the Once-Ler. Even when the Lorax chose his way to come across as angry to the Once-Ler to try to get rid of him The Lorax was not persistent at all while
Groucho Marx once said” While money can’t buy you happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.” People pretend to lose sight of what’s important. In the short story, “the Necklace” the women Mathilde Loisel feels a burden of her poverty and imagines a more extravagant existence. In “In La Riconada” all the gold was taken. The other short story, “King Midas”, was about a king who wished everything he touched turned into gold.
The gain of Indulgence has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Tom Walker has a first hand experience with the price of voracity. A tight situation happens in order to warn readers not to let greed or hurdles blind them, for it can have a disastrous consequences. Washington Irving’s short story , “The Devil and Tom Walker” focuses on greed and its negative effects; this presents how self- indulgence is something that can lead to suffering in an individual’s life.
In 2013, Philip Schultz spins “Greed”, an intricate piece of literature allowing readers to superficially experience the struggle of racial injustice; however, as one dives deeper between Schultz’s lines, the oceanside town’s complexity becomes apparent. Through the eyes of a wealthy son of a poor man, Schultz explores the relationship between greed and “happiness,” causing his narrator to question who is deserving of the fleeting feeling that possesses many forms. Although the narrator appears to advocate for equality, his voice is drowned out by the deafening silence greed emits as for he struggles to reject the wealth he allows himself to wallow in; thus, the narrator emphasizes the control “abundance” possesses over happiness (Schultz
In the book Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, the country Nepal and Tibet are responsible for the deaths of people mentioned in the book. Greed also had a role in making Nepal and Tibet responsible for causing deaths of people in the book. Ultimately, there it is not one person's fault for the deaths mentioned in the book because mostly these 2 countries were being greedy and making people pay upwards of $70,000 to be guided up the mountain regardless of their condition, health, and state they are in. Knowing this Jon Krakauer still contribute to the deaths and agony of the people mentioned in the book because of how he misguided people there. Overall self preservation is what the author is trying to tell us. If people wanted to climb the mountain
The concept of greed, which was previously centered on consumption, is currently associated with material accumulation and seen as a self-conscious material vice (Robertson 2001, p. 76). Further analysis singles out several types of greed for money and possessions: greed as service and obedience to wealth, greed as love and devotion to wealth, greed as trusting in wealth (Rosner 2007, p. 11). The characters of The Great Gatsby portray all of the aforementioned types of greed. For instance early in the story Gatsby becomes aware of “the youth and m...
Upon reading more closely, the story is revealed to present a tragic journey of a man who has lost his sanity but seeks solace in the materialistic comforts of his old life. The story succeeds in making a number of statements about human nature: that wealth is the most powerful measure of social status and anyone without it will face ostracization; that denial of one 's mistakes and unfortunate circumstances only leads to more pain; that even the most optimistic people can hold dark secrets and emotional turmoil inside them. All of these themes compel the reader to ponder their real-life implications long after the story is
The love of money is the root of all evil, a statement that has proved itself true through the centuries. Loving money traps us, as human beings. It is not a bad thing to enjoy what money can do; however, the love of money is a wasted effort that can put all in grave peril. It is at our advantage that we have the ability to choose whether we ‘want’ to fall into that trap. Unfortunately, that choice is difficult since society associates one’s character with wealth and financial management. The mishaps, deaths, and hardships that occur from the beginning of the tale are the result of deliberate deception for personal gain. In Treasure Island, greed sends the characters on a voyage. Robert Louis Stevenson makes a social commentary on the role that money has come to play in our society.
An unprecedented pathway to the highest place in the hierarchy, and suddenly all was nothing but illusion. A young man, goes by the name of Once-ler went to an adventure with his donkey friend to find the perfect natural resources to make his thneeds, a product that's useful for everything. After a long journey, he discovered a place full of truffula trees, the entice beauty of the whole place amazed him.
In this world there is pain and happiness, and you do not always get to choose what your lot is going to become. In The Rescue Artist by Edward Dolnick, two thieves broke into a Norwegian museum right before dawn and stole Edvard Munch's The Scream, one of the most valuable painted pieces in the world. On the black market, that painting could be sold for over $74,000,000. In the Janesville Gazette, they had over twenty four arrests on September 17, and quite a few of them were robberies also (Public record 1). When someone is content, they have everything they could want. But when someone becomes a thief, they want. If they were happy, why would they covet what someone else has? Why would they take for more, if they had everyt...
All that glitters is not gold. A lesson Mathilde Loisel had learned during her journey of discovering the greed. Greed is a curse that blocks people’s vision from seeing the realistic value of things...
Greed, being a key human condition, has shaped society from the very start. In fact, some scholars believe that greed was the first major milestone of human success, when the first human wondered why he/she had to scrounge around for necessities; it is a part of being human to be greedy. Wanting a new car, to be loved by another, or to desire the feeling of well doing when feeding the needy, these are all factions of greed...
There are birds in the jungle that sometimes wake up the main character with their cries and native people who live nearby that bring him food. Fire and two boatmen who show up later in the story are also realistic elements. The magical, or fantastic, elements make the story take a completely different route than what it would have without them. Rabkin says that "the truly fantastic occurs when the ground rules of a narrative are forced to make a 180 degrees reversal" (18-19). The main character "came up the bank without pushing aside (probably without feeling) the brambles which dilacerated his flesh.to the circular enclosure" and "stretched out beneath the pedestal" (25).
Greed is a distraction from recognizing mortality. It is a distraction. It serves no other purpose except “self-observing me.” What our culture, family, and freinds should be emphasizing concerning such a powerful emotion is focusing on motivating people to follow higher ambitions. Not so much as always grabbing more “wants,” but teaching people to ignore the ugly side of greed and make it beautiful. The antonym of "Greed" is "Generosity" and I think the generosity could do much better. An example of beautiful greed would be not obsessing or hoarding, but giving instead of always wanting. As a substitute of pleasing oneself with material acquisitions and possessions instead gratify people who have very little and on the verge of poverty. Satisfy the lonely and those suffering. Let the evil in greed suffer and be destroyed due to people sprouting in kindness and compassion, generosity and