Rhetorical Critcism - The Lorax
What I Changed...
After reviewing this essay, I made changes according to the rubric. The first change I made to my essay was the title. I changed my title from Corruption to Horrendous Worlds. After revising my title, I attempted to make my attention getter more attention getting. To wrap up my revisions on this essay, I changed my conclusion to make it more satisfying.
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Horrendous Worlds
Can an imaginary world be as horrible as the real world? In The Lorax, Ted goes in search of the Once-ler to learn why the Truffula trees had vanished. He continued to listen to the story about the death of the Truffula trees in order to obtain a seed. Ted wanted the Truffula seed to plant for the girl he loved, who has dreamed of seeing a real tree her entire life. In the movie, the people of Thneedville are forced to buy bottled air to survive because there are no trees to create oxygen. Both the fictional world of The Lorax and the real world display actions that are leading to the corruption of society. The fictional world of The Lorax is similar to the real world in the aspects of greed, advertising, and destruction of the environment.
Greed, as defined in the dictionary, is excessive desire for wealth or other possessions. Greed was displayed throughout The Lorax and is also evident each day in the real world. In The Lorax, greed is shown when Mr. O’Hare continues selling bottled air to the people of Thneedville in order to acquire more money. Additionally, the Once-ler expresses greed when he chops down all the Truffula trees in the forest so that he can make more Thneeds. Similarly, in the real world, large deforestation companies clear-cut forests instead of other more sustainable foresting methods so that they can bring in additional money. In all of these examples, greed is being displayed. Mr. O’Hare, the Once-ler, and deforestation companies are becoming overwhelmed with greed and they push as far as they can just to obtain a larger income.
Another similarity between the fictional world of The Lorax and the real world is advertising. In The Lorax, Mr. O’Hare hires two men to come up with a new advertising commercial to help sell his new product. The egregious commercial is advertising bottled air and it displays it like alcohol, thus making people feel as though having bottled air is the “cool” thing to do. In comparison, the television commercials in the real world also display advertisements that attribute products that people only buy because they feel peer pressured and they want to be like all the others. Therefore, both the fictional world and the real world use advertising techniques to sell practical and ill-advised products.
A final similarity between the fictional world of The Lorax and the real world is destruction of the environment. In The Lorax, the Once-ler was ineffable with greed and chopped down all the Truffula trees in the forest. By chopping down all of the trees, the Once-ler destroyed the homes of thousands of creatures, thus he destroyed the environment. The Once-ler also dumps all the waste from the factory into the lake, again contributing to the destruction of the environment. Likewise, oil companies continue to drill even though they are depleting the supply. This constant drilling puts a constricting stress on the planet, resulting in the destruction of the environment even further. Evidently, both the fictional world and the real world display the destruction of the environment.
In conclusion, the fictional world of The Lorax is similar to the real world in many aspects. Greed, the first
aspect, is shown throughout the entire movie, as well as being displayed each day in real world. The second similarity of advertising is shown in the movie as a result of overwhelming greed. Additionally, advertising is shown every second of each day in the real world in an attempt to sell products and make a profit. The final aspect was the destruction of the environment. In both worlds, deforestation, pollution, and large amounts of stress on the planet take place. In conclusion, the fictional world of The Lorax is exceptionally similar to the real world displaying the corruption of society due to greed, advertising, and destruction of the environment which displays that both worlds are full of horrible acts.
Greed, as defined in the dictionary, is excessive desire for wealth or other possessions. Greed was displayed throughout The Lorax and is also evident each day in the real world. In The Lorax, greed is shown when Mr. O’Hare continues selling bottled air to the people of Thneedville in order to acquire more money. Additionally, the Once-ler expresses greed when he chops down all the Truffula trees in the forest so that he can make more Thneeds. Similarly, in the real world, large deforestation companies clear-cut forests instead of other more sustainable foresting methods so that they can bring in additional money. In all of these examples, greed is being displayed. Mr. O’Hare, the Once-ler, and deforestation companies are becoming overwhelmed with greed and they push as far as they can just to obtain a larger income.
Another similarity between the fictional world of The Lorax and the real world is advertising. In The Lorax, Mr. O’Hare hires two men to come up with a new advertising commercial to help sell his new product. The egregious commercial is advertising bottled air and it displays it like alcohol, thus making people feel as though having bottled air is the “cool” thing to do. In comparison, the television commercials in the real world also display advertisements that attribute products that people only buy because they feel peer pressured and they want to be like all the others. Therefore, both the fictional world and the real world use advertising techniques to sell practical and ill-advised products.
A final similarity between the fictional world of The Lorax and the real world is destruction of the environment. In The Lorax, the Once-ler was ineffable with greed and chopped down all the Truffula trees in the forest. By chopping down all of the trees, the Once-ler destroyed the homes of thousands of creatures, thus he destroyed the environment. The Once-ler also dumps all the waste from the factory into the lake, again contributing to the destruction of the environment. Likewise, oil companies continue to drill even though they are depleting the supply. This constant drilling puts a constricting stress on the planet, resulting in the destruction of the environment even further. Evidently, both the fictional world and the real world display the destruction of the environment.
In conclusion, the fictional world of The Lorax is similar to the real world in many aspects. Greed, the first
aspect, is shown throughout the entire movie, as well as being displayed each day in real world. The second similarity of advertising is shown in the movie as a result of overwhelming greed. Additionally, advertising is shown every second of each day in the real world in an attempt to sell products and make a profit. The final aspect was the destruction of the environment. In both worlds, deforestation, pollution, and large amounts of stress on the planet take place. In conclusion, the fictional world of The Lorax is exceptionally similar to the real world displaying the corruption of society due to greed, advertising, and destruction of the environment which displays that both worlds are full of horrible acts.