Nyahhh. I didn’t deconstruct it. I wouldn’t do that to that magnificent story.
I didn’t really understand the story when I was a kid. While reading it to my daughter I suddenly had one of those “A-ha!” experiences.
The “Giving tree” is a metaphor for parenthood.
Gosh, where to start on this?
To consider the “Giving Tree” or good children’s literature, as being necessarily didactic or moralistic is, IMHO, wrong. I believe good children’s literature should be somewhat subversive and the great children’s lit of the last few centuries, from Lewis Caroll’s Alice adventures to Antoine d’Exupery’s The Little Prince from Dr. Seuss to Silverstein, is exactly that. The child is not treated as an innocent, “prelapsarian” being, but rather one with some (albeit limited) experience, individuality and the ability to reason.
I believe The Giving Tree is remarkable for those reasons. The book is a sad, at point cynical, tale of selfless giving. It is up to the reader (beit child or adult) to ascertain what the moral is, if there in fact is one at all. I don’t believe there is. Yes, it’s a tale of co-dependency. Yes, it’s a metaphor for parenthood, or self-less love. One can even read it as metaphor for God’s love, if one is so inclined. I believe the child does not need any further hand-holding for him/her to come to a conclusion from the book.
And the book changes meaning upon context. When I read this book as a child, I had different ideas about its meaning than when I was a teenager, and furthermore when I became an adult. It’s a living book, one whose message changes depending upon the frame of reference of the reader. That’s one of the things that makes it such a crowning glory of “children’s” literature for me.
I cage “children’s” in quotes, since I wouldn’t necessarily believe Silverstein himself would classify it as such. If you’ve read anything about Silverstein (and there isn’t exactly a wealth of biographical info out there about him; he was a very private person), you’d find out that he didn’t much like being pigeon-holed as a children’s author. In fact, his lesser-known adult works (as far as I remember) are more prolific than his children’s pieces. He penned drawings for Playboy (the original outlet of the absolutely ingenious “Uncle Shelby’s ABZs”) and wrote many lyrics and poems about adult subjects. See http://www.banned-width.com for more info.
The story wasn’t meant to be a shiny-happy moralistic piece of juvenille drivel, and that is partly why it survives and remains memorable to so many of us.
I was read this story when I was about 8 and I took the lessons then as to not be greedy and to appreciate my parents better.
I didn’t take it as “Gee look what I can get out of my parents of I just ask!” (Although the parochial school I went to of course said the tree was supposed to be Jesus :rolleyes: ).
I read it to my son now and see it as “Yes, I could and would give this much, but if I raise him right I probably won’t have to.”
It was Fenris who deconstructed it, but the thread may have been eaten by the board.
Here it is.
Well. When I started this thread, I figured I’d pretty much get ignored as the big dork that I am… instead I’ve read more thoughtful, insightful responses (on both sides of the fence) than I can process right now!
Overall, I’m still left with kind of a yicchy taste in my mouth about the book. I did talk to my sister (the one with the kids) about it when she happened to call me at work this morning…
…SHE thinks I’m a big dork, and says I’m thinking WAYYYY too much about one little book. (Hell, SHE’s the one who majored in Child Psych, I’m just a Literature Geek.)
Now THERE’s a mother for ya!
That’s misogyny.
Gaudere’s Law strikes again.
Not unless you expect your daughter to put you on an iceburg to die as soon as you stop being useful to her.
If the Giving Tree hadn’t raised a selfish little sociopath, I could see it as a beautiful metaphor. But th’ little punk never once looks beyond his own greed. And as someone with aging parents, I hope that someone shoots me if I ever treat them the way the punk treated the Tree.
Fenris
What depressing thoughts about TGT! I thought both parties were happy at the end, & that it was a happy ending. For some bizarre reason, the tree loved the boy/man. That’s real unconditional love [rare in real life]. Dogs seem that way. Supposedly, they can be mistreated but will still be loyal to their master.
*Uncle Shelby’s ABZ * is hilarious, & I’m a Gorey fan.
Should I expect “Revenge of the Giving Tree” to hit the shelves in response? I’m picturing an army of saplings attacking the old man ala The Wizard of Oz, hunting down his family one by one, and burying roots through the decaying bodies.