"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 am figgering on biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING and BIGGERING, turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds which everyone, EVERYONE needs!" - A younger Once-ler yelling at the Lorax in the book.
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not." - An older Once-ler, realizing what the Lorax meant by UNLESS.
The Once-ler is the narrator of The Lorax and the 2012 film adaptation of the same name. He was a greedy industrialist who cut down all of the multicolored Truffula Trees to make a multipurpose garment known as a Thneed, a "Fine-Thing-That-All-People-Need." He is currently a recluse who lives in his Lerkim, plagued by the guilt of what he had done to the forest.
Biography[]
The Lorax (1972 TV special)[]
One day, the Once-ler discovers a valley full of Truffula Trees in which the Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-fish inhabit. He decides to cut down one of the trees for his invention, the Thneed. When he chops down a Truffula Tree, he finds the Lorax in the tree trunk. He receives a warning about destroying the forest for his greedy plans. The Once-ler does not listen and continues to cut down trees to create Thneeds to sell.
As the Once-ler's small shop grows into a factory and new equipment is being made to keep up with the demand for more Thneeds, signs of damage to the Truffula Forest become evident to the Lorax. The Lorax first complains to the Once-ler that the Truffula trees, being chopped down, were also the food source of the Bar-ba-Loots, who are now facing a terrible food shortage and implied illness (stated illness in the book called the Crummies, caused by gas instead of food being in the stomach). To save them, the Lorax sends them off to find another food source. At first, the Once-ler only shows a little remorse but still focuses on expanding his business.
Soon, the Once-ler's Thneed-making business expanded tenfold and now uses delivery trucks to take out the shipments. The Lorax eventually comes back complaining to the Once-ler that the factories are belching out so much smogulous smoke that it is giving the Swomee-Swans sore throats, leaving them unable to sing, so the Lorax sends them off. The Once-ler then says that shutting down his factory would put 100,000 workers out of a job, which would not be economically sound for the country. The Lorax contemplates his point but says he wouldn’t know the answer to the problem. The Once-ler says he’ll think about it, but the Lorax refuses to believe him this time. He then complains to him about his machinery making a goo by-product called Gluppity-Glupp and Schloppity-Schlopp and how it is being dumped into the ponds where the Humming-fish live, leaving them unable to hum and forcing the Lorax to send them away too.
The Once-ler begins to see the light, but Miss Funce-ler calls him via a phone and informs him that Thneeds Inc.'s stock has risen 27 5/8 points. He then dismisses the Lorax's pleadings, berating the Lorax for chastising his business practices, and tells the Lorax he is figgering on biggering and turning more Truffula Trees into Thneeds, “which everyone needs.” The Lorax's complaints, however, unhappily prove to be true just as the last Truffula Tree gets chopped down. With all the trees gone, no more Thneeds can be made, so the Thneed factories close down. The Once-ler's family departs, leaving the Once-ler alone with the Lorax, who, looking back at the Once-ler sadly, picks himself up by the "seat of his pants" and floats away through a hole in the smog, leaving behind only a tiny pile of rocks with the word "UNLESS" inscribed into them.
The Once-ler alone remains, gazing upon the disintegrating ruins of his factories over the years and contemplating the meaning of this last message, perhaps with a sense of remorse. In the end, the Once-ler realizes what it means: unless someone who cares enough to make a difference comes along, things will either remain as they are or worsen until it's too late. And so, he gives the boy the very last Truffula seed for him to plant and take care of.
The Lorax (2012)[]
The Once-ler lived with his mother, brothers Brett and Chet, Uncle Ubb, and Aunt Grizelda. They all thought he would "result to nothing," so when the Once-ler left to sell his invention, the Thneed, they were happy to laugh at his optimism. Even so, Once-ler continued to find the perfect material for his Thneed. After being pulled into his fully loaded cart by his mule while playing songs on his guitar, he stumbles upon "the most beautiful place he had ever seen." The forest was filled with Truffula Trees, Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-fish.
As he chops down his first Truffula tree, the Lorax is summoned from thunder in the sky and forms on the tree stump. The Lorax warns him, but the Once-ler ignores his threats.
On the night of his arrival, while he is peacefully sleeping, the Lorax, with the help of the Bar-ba-loots, the Swomee-Swans, and the Humming-fish, takes his bed and shoves him into the river. Unfortunately, their plan is ruined because one of the youngest Bar-ba-loots, Pipsqueak, also finds himself on the bed but cannot swim.
The Lorax saves Pipsqueak, as well as the Once-ler, and they make a deal. The Once-ler promises not to chop down any more Truffula trees, but the Lorax says he will keep an eye on him. As time passes, the Once-ler's Thneed gets discovered and is highly demanded. To fulfill that demand, the Once-ler calls his family to the valley to help him make the Thneeds by collecting the tuffs of the Truffula trees. However, his mother suggests he start cutting down the trees to make production faster, which he does.
The Lorax calls the Once-ler out on his broken promise, but the Once-ler cannot see what he did wrong. After his family arrives in the valley, the once happy and kind Once-ler disappears and is replaced with a greedy, money-crazed salesman. He denies he has done anything wrong but feels incredibly guilty to see the last of the Truffula trees being chopped down. All the animals left, and the Lorax picked himself up and rose away, leaving a rock with the word "Unless" engraved. He stared at that word in his house for years, wondering what it meant. He told his story to a curious Ted Wiggins and gave him the last Truffula tree seed, righting his wrongs.
Appearance[]
The 1972 television special depicts the Once-ler much like he appears in the book, with his face not shown and simply a pair of green arms and legs. However, the 2012 film depicts him as being human, a tall pale-skinned male with short black hair and light blue eyes.
At the beginning of the movie, he wears a gray fedora, a gray vest, a long-sleeved white shirt, gray striped pants, and dark gray shoes. Additionally, he wears green gardening gloves. He wears a long blue pajama set with a yellow rabbit pattern when he goes to bed.
Continuing through the story, his outfit switches to a black top hat with a green stripe, a long, green tailcoat with lighter green stripes on it, black pants, long green gloves, and blue, sparkly sunglasses as an accessory. He has a gold chain hanging from his coat to his pants, a black and green striped tie, a small Truffula tree-shaped flower in the collar of his coat, and black dress shoes.
In the movie’s present day, his hair is white, he has wrinkles, and he has a huge mustache. He wears an outfit similar to his green suit, just without the lapels, darker stripes, lighter color, baggier gloves, a makeshift waistband, and a differently shaped cape that’s colored like the rest of it on the inside instead of being the inside just being white. He also wears a muted green top hat, a large Thneed scarf, and shorter dress shoes.
Trivia[]
The Lorax (1972)[]
- The Once-ler was intentionally left faceless by Dr. Seuss. That’s because the Once-ler was to represent big business and all industrialists rather than a single individual.
- It remains unknown what species the Once-ler is, though he does tell the Lorax that he speaks for men and human opportunities, which likely means he is a human. In the original book, he is mentioned to have a Snuvv, a strange hole in his gruvvulous glove, proving his green arms are gloves, not skin. In some scenes of the special, however, it is shown that he and his workers wear full green suits, not just gloves, particularly when the workers are singing his hymn and when the Once-ler and the Lorax enter the underground room that produces Gluppity-Glupp and Schloppity-Schlopp.
The Lorax (2012)[]
- He is possibly in his 20's during the time of the Truffula trees.
- He likes marshmallows.
- He is a talented musician.
- The Lorax calls him "beanpole."
- His mother calls him "Oncie" (/wˈʌnsiː/).
- He is a heavy sleeper.