The Ever So Sociological Lorax

The Lorax is a fantastic movie, coming highly recommended from a random high schooler who had the privilege of watching it in her sociology class. It is about a society that grows so technologically advanced and they live inside a little city area. Inside the city, they have every type of weather they want: beaches, snow, parks, etc. All of the nature, however, is fake, mechanical. The people of Thneedville's Social Construct of Reality is that the world is solely made of technology and nature is unnecessary and basically nonexistent. All they know is that nobody travels outside of the city walls, until a daring 12 year old boy travels outside in search of a tree. When he does this, he sees the dreary reality of life outside the city and what the citizens of Thneedville have condoned without even knowing it.
Throughout this movie, many sociological terms can be seen and identified. One such term is ethnocentrism which means culturally centered, in other words, you think your culture is the best. One specific example of this is at the end when O'Hare, the head of Thneedville, continues to fight against planting the seed and allowing trees to grow. He gives a speech about how living without nature is better and continues by singing this Brief Blurb in the middle of a song about letting the seed grow.
Another sociological term seen in The Lorax is when Ted uses his sociological imagination to think about the Trufulla Trees Audrey shows him and what life was like with the trees around. He decides to take this exploration of his sociological imagination further, going to visit the Once-ler to ask him about the trees. The Once-ler shares a story of a time when he was not very sociologically mindful. He only thought about his technology and what he wanted, rather than thinking about the nature he was destroying around him and how his actions would impact them.
When the Once-ler cut down the trees to create a thneed, conflict theory was exhibited between nature and society. Nature and society clashed and caused a major change resulting in the complete destruction of nature and the creation of the town of Thneedville.