Questions:
1. What does it mean to do something harmful? How can you tell things that are harmful from things that are not? Is it harmful to cut down just one tree?
2. Why does the Once-ler keep expanding his business after the Brown Bar-ba-loots leave? Why does the Once-ler think that everyone needs Thneeds? Is he right?
3. Do you think that there could have been a way for the Once-ler to make Thneeds, without causing harm? Why or why not?
4. Why does the Lorax leave the word "UNLESS" on a pile of rocks? What does "unless" mean?
5. In the beginning of the story, the Once-ler claims that everyone needs Thneeds, but at the end he claims that what everyone really needs is Truffula trees. Why does he change his mind? What is different about the value of trees and the value of Thneeds? What makes trees more valuable?
This case was taken from Teaching Children
Philosophy by Professor Tom Wartenberg
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