The Message of Let It Grow - The Lorax
⏱ Read time: 2.5 - 3 minutes
EarthPlex wrote about the environmental message of How Bad Can I Be from The Lorax a few months ago, so I decided to continue looking into the meanings of songs that relate to conservation and the environment. Let It Grow is probably the most well-known Lorax song, and it's pretty catchy too. I looked into the message of Let it Grow, the meme-worthy song about planting a tree, and I realized its relevance in 2021.
In the song, the residents of Thneed-Ville sang about planting a tree. One of the lyrics that caught my eyes - or ears - was "you can't reap what you don't sow." I have actually been thinking about this lyric for a couple of months, and I'm still confused about its meaning. My understanding is that people cannot profit off of something they didn't create, as O'Hare profited off of clean air.
Speaking of O'Hare, he sang the best line of the song. Just when it seemed as if he would change his mind, he said, "Let it die!" O'Hare cared about profit over life, which is why the "greedy dirtbag" got shipped away.
Let it Grow teaches an important lesson: while an individual person seems powerless, they possess great influence when they work with a team. For example, the residents of Thneed-Ville united to plant the last Truffula Tree and stood up to O'Hare, who profited off of the lack of trees. Even though The Lorax is fiction, this theme exists in the real world. What happened with GameStop stock (and others) showed that independent retail investors can stand up to large financial institutions. Through social media and the internet, ordinary people have begun to stand up for what is right, even if it means getting in the way of established corporations. Did Dr. Seuss intend his book - that became a movie with excellent songs - to stay relevant decades later?
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