The Lorax: Literary Criticism

On the internet you find a tremendous amount of articles and websites that show little easter eggs or subliminal messages hidden inside of kids movies and books. However what is the point in these hidden objects if the story isn’t even understood itself and it hasn’t been viewed in a different literary lense? The movie “The Lorax” could easily be used with any of the four lenses of literary criticism. The story is most likely going to be viewed by Marxist critics because the dictators and leaders in the movie and how they impact the story much more significantly than the others.
The story has three main dictators, the first one being the Once-ler. The Once-ler first starts off as an innocent boy just trying to live the “American Dream” but the story takes a huge turn when the mother of the boy becomes an influence on him causing him to make serious mistakes that harms nature itself. The Once-ler does happen to change his past ways by helping the main character Ted grow more trees to right his wrongs. Keep in mind he is not the main dictator or villain in this story.
The main cause of the whole situation is because of the mother of The Once-ler, Isabella. Isabela shows many signs of being the dictator of the family, one reason being the way the father treats his son and how he acts around her. She also orders around her three sons like they are slaves and just picks and chooses which one is her favorite as if they are in a position. She is also the cause of O'hare’s wrath( This is the most important Dictator). In the movie there is a scene where we see a young O'hare looking at a sign with a picture of the Once-ler on it. This inspires him to become a leader or a dictator and the entire reason the Once-ler is on the sign is because of