• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

The Lorax

Mondo

Welcome to Sunnyside
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
1,992
MBTI Type
EsTP
Enneagram
6w7
I watched "The Lorax" on YouTube last night.
It's always been one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books.

There are really only two characters with developed personalities, so I think..

The Lorax: ENFJ
The Once-ler: ENTJ

Very strong F/T conflict throughout the story.. T wins but F was the one who should have won.

YouTube - The Lorax (Part 1)
There are six parts for those who are interested- it's only thirty minutes long.
 

Jeffster

veteran attention whore
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
6,743
MBTI Type
ESFP
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sx
I love The Lorax! :D

When I was a kid, I totally wanted to strangle that bastard.
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
8,828
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
4w5
When I was a kid, I totally wanted to strangle that bastard.

:huh: The Once-ler or the Lorax?

Anyway, I kind of felt sorry for the Onceler... it's a shame he didn't figure out that he was going to run out of trees before his factory had no raw materials left... because then he could have planned around the supply of trees and kept things operating for a longer time. Instead, he just poured those resources into creating a factory that, in the end, had to be abandoned.

I blame the Lorax for his lousy presentation skills and passiveness (not to mention grating, possessive, irrational, irascible personality) letting everything get that far. If he had presented it in a way that the Onceler could understand beforehand, things would have turned out better. But he stubbornly insisted on communicating it in a way that made no sense.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Anyway, I kind of felt sorry for the Onceler... it's a shame he didn't figure out that he was going to run out of trees before his factory had no raw materials left... because then he could have planned around the supply of trees and kept things operating for a longer time. Instead, he just poured those resources into creating a factory that, in the end, had to be abandoned.

He was portrayed as smart.
So I'm left with the notion that he just didn't actually give a damn.
Not much sympathy on my part for him and his desire to make a fast buck.

I blame the Lorax for his lousy presentation skills and passiveness (not to mention grating, possessive, irrational, irascible personality) letting everything get that far. If he had presented it in a way that the Onceler could understand beforehand, things would have turned out better. But he stubbornly insisted on communicating it in a way that made no sense.

Maybe he communicated it in the only way that he could and didn't "choose" a particular style. Would you think someone should gripe about how you presented your ideas, saying you should picked a "better" way... as if you specifically chose the way that didn't make sense? I doubt that.

YOu know how the prophetic types are anyway.
It takes a certain type of personality to survive being ignored and persisting in the face of impossible odds.
 

Mondo

Welcome to Sunnyside
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
1,992
MBTI Type
EsTP
Enneagram
6w7
It looked like the Onceler was still wealthy and well-known in the end.
He just wasn't producing anything.
He knew what was going to happen.. I have no sympathy for him.
However, he didn't think about how he would feel about the devastation of the environment.
The Onceler thought he would have been fine with the destruction.

If you watch "The Lorax", I think the Lorax's persuasion skills were fine, it was just that he was very naive about the sort of character the Onceler was.
At the beginning, the Lorax thought that no one would possibly want to buy a Thneed since trees were destroyed to make it.
Neither was willing to compromise. Unfortunately, the Onceler had more wealth and more power and won in the end.

The Onceler won but the Lorax was right.
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
8,828
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
4w5
He was portrayed as smart.
So I'm left with the notion that he just didn't actually give a damn.
Not much sympathy on my part for him and his desire to make a fast buck.

Well, he obviously didn't want his factory to shut down due to running out of resources... and he regretted the consequences once he saw them. He also had a much more pleasant and helpful personality than the Lorax.

And what's with your dreary moralizing and disdain for people who want to make money? The Lorax was obviously a relic, someone who couldn't accept progress and didn't like technology. He really looked like he was just being whiny and clinging to the past, loving nature. Nobody liked the Lorax, and people wanted the the product the Onceler was selling.

It could even be argued that the Onceler got more fulfillment out of life earlier on when he started out. The Lorax just spent his whole life fighting a hopeless battle and getting more discouraged over time. If he hadn't done what he did, he wouldn't have gotten that enjoyment. So in supporting the Lorax, you say that we should sacrifice comfort and enjoyment in order to preserve resources that are assigned an arbitrary value based on some sense of what's right and wrong, and not for any good reason.



Maybe he communicated it in the only way that he could and didn't "choose" a particular style. Would you think someone should gripe about how you presented your ideas, saying you should picked a "better" way... as if you specifically chose the way that didn't make sense? I doubt that.

YOu know how the prophetic types are anyway.
It takes a certain type of personality to survive being ignored and persisting in the face of impossible odds.

Why should I admire the Lorax just for persisting if he didn't succeed? It was futile and a waste of time, when he saw it wasn't working he should have tried something else. But he didn't, he just stuck to the same course. The Lorax might have been right about one thing, but he wasn't particularly bright or creative overall.

And yes, I do think that if someone is presenting their ideas poorly, they should have to learn how to present them differently before they deserve to have them listened to or accepted. Presentation is as important as substance in the end, in how people look at it, you know.
 

Mondo

Welcome to Sunnyside
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
1,992
MBTI Type
EsTP
Enneagram
6w7
Athenian200 said:
Why should I admire the Lorax just for persisting if he didn't succeed? It was futile and a waste of time, when he saw it wasn't working he should have tried something else. But he didn't, he just stuck to the same course. The Lorax might have been right about one thing, but he wasn't particularly bright or creative overall.

Athenian200, you make some good points about the Once-ler.
However, he was just a 'champion for the people'.
He took everything away from all the wildlife who had no use for the Thneeds.
However, the animals in the Lorax showed more signs of human intelligence than your typical animals.. ;)

However, I have a question.
What else could the Lorax have done to stop the progress?
His only power was language. The Lorax didn't have the wealth or physical strength that could have stopped the Once-ler.
The Lorax couldn't have made a deal with the Once-ler to preserve his land for a lot of money, for instance.
 

Jeffster

veteran attention whore
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
6,743
MBTI Type
ESFP
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sx
:huh: The Once-ler or the Lorax?
.

Oh, the Lorax definitely. I thought he was a self-righteous punk or something. I haven't seen it in a LONG time, so I'm just going off my vague memories of my impression of him.
 

Froody Blue Gem

Necromancing Scapelamb
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
1,141
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
954
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I see the Lorax more as ESFJ probably tritype 1w2-6w5-2w1 so/sx. Well, I haven't seen the movie but I'm going off the book version. So I acknowledge it's possible there could have been a change to his personality. I saw the original animated adaptation but not the one by Illumination.

I do agree with the fe vs. te conflict aspect being the driving force of the story though.
 

Burning Paradigm

Vibe Curator & Night Owl
Joined
May 16, 2020
Messages
2,146
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
731
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
It's been a hot minute since I read the book or saw the movie, but just going off memory.
Lorax: ENFJ 1w9 > 6w5 > 2w1 so/sp
Once-ler: ESTJ 3w2 > 8w7 > ? sp/so

Since I see a bit of conversation going on about the morality of the characters (from 11 years ago lmao) I'll offer my personal opinion; I appreciate the need to balance out utilizing resources vs. conserving and protecting natural resources for their own sake. Although the story is obviously written to favor the Lorax, it appears to be a conflict between two almost satirical extremes of a Luddite and heartless capitalist. I acknowledge we have more examples of the latter today in forms of big corporations who go beyond simple resource use into irresponsible exploitation (with negative consequences for the global ecosystem). But, to symbolize environmental sustainability in the form of a moralizing technophobe does the concept and movement pushing for it sort of a disservice; that's more of an author and messaging issue, though.
 
Top