The Giving Tree
“The Giving tree” is a children’s book, written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. This is an extremely moving story about the unconditional love and the gift of giving.The book tells the story of the tree, which loved the Boy and felt happy having him near. He swung on her branches, slid down the trunk, and ate apples.
Next time the Boy came, he considered himself too old to play and wanted some money, and the three gave him her apples. The following time the Boy wanted more – a house to live in, and the tree suggested to cut off her branches, so that he can build one. Coming again some years later, the Boy was sad, because he wanted to build a boat that will take him far away.
Again, the tree did not hesitate to give everything she had, a trunk now. When the Boy came to the stump, which was everything left from the tree, he was already old and needed rest, and the tree was happy to be able to help her Boy again suggesting her stump to sit on. I find the book very moving and thoughtful. The relations between the tree and the Boy is a good metaphor for the parent-child relationships. The metaphor is created with a help of a splendid thought-out personification of a tree. Children tend to cause pain to their parents not even realizing it, and there is no more joy for a parent than to help his child and see him happy.
The author shows how unconditional and forgiving parental love is. It is notable that the tree calls het visitor the Boy, no matter how old he is, as all of us remain little children for our parents. Although I really like the book, I think it is too pessimistic. Moreover, young children unlikely grasp the moral. It may be difficult for them to understand why the boy is so cruel or why the tree feels sorry for not being able to give more. Not all children are that demanding and ungrateful. I think it would be better if the boy was loving and attentive to the tree, but sad about something missing in his life, with which the tree would be always ready and happy to help.
This way, children will not concentrate on the negative message of lack of appreciation and care we sometimes find in our nearest, but learn about caring relationships, where parents are always there for them. To conclude, I consider the story great. Still, I think this is the book for the grown-ups and can make young children lost in non-understanding and really …
