Moodle Post 1. This week I'd like you to take an especially close look at The Lorax.

As Marshall points out, the book can be read as both a children's book and an environmental piece. I'd like you to make two lists-- one of the rhetorical choices that Seuss makes in writing a children's book, and one of the rhetorical choices that Seuss makes in writing an environmental piece. I'd like you to look at the language, the characters, illustrations, etc. If you can't see the pictures clearly enough, you should be able to Google some of them. We will use these lists for part of our next class, so I suggest that you write your lists down on notebook paper as well as post them to moodle. a. When I first listened to the e-book of The Lorax, I just thought of it of the typical Dr. Seuss story with rhymes and funny characters. It wasnt until I read The Lorax and the Ecopolice that I actually saw two sides of the story. The childrens book side, and the more subliminal environmental side. The fact that Dr. Seuss packed an important global issue into a nursery rhyme or childrens book to where those silly words and rhymes get stuck in your head was very clever. Childrens Book:

Typical villain: The Onceler because hes chopping down all of the trees and making all of the animlas move away Typical hero: The Lorax because hes the one advocating for The Onceler to stop chopping down the trees and putting smoke in the air from his factory Exaggeration of the Truffula Trees: How colorful and curvy they are compared to normal trees Close look at the habitat of the Swomee Swans, Bar-ba-loots, and Humming-Fish The rhymes throughout the book All of the many pictures with a few words at a time The interesting product thneed everyone needs one

Environmental:

Directly targets timber industries The Lorax is an environmentalist The antipollution and anti-greed theme The past tense talk on how the grass and land used to look Theres always protesters telling industries that cut down trees to stop, but they dont listen The fact that these companies can be selfish All of the pollution and smoke in the air causes animals to leave their habitat Cutting down trees cause animals to leave their habitat