Over Ted's various visits, the Once-ler recounts the story that when he was a young man, he departed his family to find good material for his Thneed invention and make a business. However, Ted continues to sneak out of O'Hare's sight (with his grandmother's encouragement) and learns more of the trees' history. After revealing that he has "security camera eyes" all over the city, O'Hare pressures Ted to stay in town. O'Hare explains to Ted that because trees produce oxygen free of charge, he considers it a threat to his business whenever he hears people talking about them. Ted agrees, but on his way home, he encounters the mayor of Thneedville, Aloysius O'Hare, who is also the proprietor of a company that sells bottled air to Thneedville residents. Once the boy finds him, the Once-ler agrees to tell Ted about the trees on the condition that he listens to the story over multiple visits.
When Ted leaves Thneedville in search of the Once-ler, he discovers that the outside world is a contaminated, empty wasteland. His energetic Grammy Norma secretly tells Ted the legend of the Once-ler, who will tell anyone about trees if they brought him fifteen cents, a nail, and a shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail. Ted has a crush on a local environmentalist, Audrey, who wants to see a "real tree" more than anything in the world, and decides to find one in order to impress her.
Ted Wiggins is an idealistic boy, who lives in "Thneedville", a walled city that, aside from the human citizens, is completely artificial everything is made of plastic, metal, or synthetics with no living plants.
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