Today in heavy-handed metaphors: The tree that inspired Dr. Seuss' The Lorax has fallen
It’s a sad day for Dr. Seuss fans, because the tree that presumably inspired The Lorax has fallen. The little orange creature with a yellow mustache and love for trees is most likely crying somewhere, and you might be too. It’s not entirely certain if this is the exact tree that inspired the ones in the much-loved book, but, regardless, the Lorax speaks for them all, for they “have no tongues.”
The trees that the Guardian of The Forest was in charge of were the Truffula trees in Thneedville. The one that recently died is the Monterey Cypress tree at Ellen Browning Scripps Park in La Jolla, California. It’s the “seaside community” that Dr. Seuss (born Theodor Seuss Geisel) lived in from 1948 until he passed away in 1991, according to Fox 6 Now. It’s stood there for 80 to 100 years, the Cypress, and was in perfect view from Geisel’s mountaintop home. The resemblance between it and the Truffula trees hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Per a spokesman for the San Diego Parks and Recreation Department, there is no known cause as to why it died now. Even so, it’s enough to remind us of the story’s pro-environment, anti-capitalist themes in an age when our president mocks climate change on Twitter and rolls back environmental protection policies.