Promoting Environmentalism across Media: The Child Figures of The Lorax

In The Sense of Wonder, first published in July 1956, Rachel Carson describes the awe at the beauty of nature she and her young nephew enjoy along the coast of Maine, USA. She suggests that a child needs an adult with whom to share the wonders of nature. ‘If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder,’ writes Carson, ‘he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in’ (p. 55). She also urges adults to explore nature with feelings and emotions, to use all their senses, and to abandon the impulse to teach or explain. ‘For the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him,’ she states, ‘it is not half so important to know as to feel’ (p. 56). Carson is convinced that it is ‘more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate’ (p. 56).