Title: The Giving Tree

Author: Shel Silverstein

Genre: Children’s Picture Book

Publication Year: 1964

Recommended Ages: Kindergarten to Middle School as well as teenagers and adults (particularly parents).

Parental Advisory: This picture book should be read by a parent to their child followed by a guided discussion about its meaning and significance. This introduction to the book is aimed at adults readers (parents, teachers, guardians) to familiarize them with its content, subject matter, underlying themes and core ideas.

The Giving Tree is a children’s picture book about a tree and her love for a little boy. When the boy is young, the two play together, spend time with one another and develop an inseparable bond with each other. However, as the boy grows older and matures into an adult, he becomes preoccupied with the responsibilities and ambitions of adult life, including the pursuit of money, a livelihood, a house for himself, a family of his own and leisurely activities (such as travel). The tree on the other hand is entirely dedicated to the boy throughout the story, giving him her apples to sell from early on, eventually offering her branches for his house, and her trunk for his boat.

At the end of the book, after incessant and selfless giving, the tree is left with nothing but her stump. The boy returns a tired old man and finds the stump of his tree without leaves, fruit or trunk and with just a wooden base that resembles a stool. The little boy, now a tired old man, sits on the tree (her) to rest and think, and the tree (or whatever is left of her) is happy. Throughout the story, the tree is referred to as “she” and “her,” which adds a human dimension to “her” character through the use of a personification that anthropomorphizes “her.”

The Giving Tree remained unpublished after it was completed for four years, being rejected by a major publisher for (as they put it) containing subject matter considered too sad and depressing for children and even for adults. Eventually, Shel Silverstein (its author) released the book only for it to be banned in the US (in 1988) for superfluous reasons, and even then it remains the 14th most read children’s book with over 5,000,000 copies sold as of 2001. As such, this children’s picture book has long divided its critics and its readers as well. Nonetheless, I include it in this running series because it has powerful messages and lessons to offer.

Depending on the perspective of readers, the story of The Giving Tree can be understood as a parable or an example of unconditional love and selfless giving that defines the relationship between a parent and a child, in particular a mother and her infant. Other interpretations critique the dangerous passivity and lack of agency of the tree in direct opposition to the thoughtlessly selfish and narcissistic attitude of the little boy. Whichever the case, this book can initiate interesting and meaningful conversations between parents and children about the strength of parent-child relationships, unconditional love, selflessness and their opposites as well as consideration for an “other” and the lack thereof.

Also Read: THE BOOK THIEF 

This book finds its literary value in the application of hyperbole, juxtaposition and contrast, in the sense that the tree and the boy in their dealings with one another are extreme opposites. As such, The Giving Tree serves a concrete purpose in creating awareness in children to reflect on the importance of a variety of relationships and the value of those who care for us and show us love as parents and guardians.

Other ways to interpret this book could be from an environmental perspective, in the sense that the little boy can be seen as a metaphor for the modernized humankind and the tree as the quintessential metaphor of nature, one that we as humans take for granted in our pursuit of modernization and industrialization (at the expense of environmental degradation).

There are many other possible readings and interpretations to be found in this children’s book, some of them a bit advanced for young children. Such readings can explore the psychological, emotive and affective layers concealed within its sixty-four pages. For example, the first and most obvious observation that can lead to a thorough discussion is the gendered relationship dynamics between the boy and the tree.

In particular, from engaging with this book, one can consider the culturally coded behavioral expectations, character traits and traditional conditioning of ‘gendered personality’ of “male” and “female” and “masculine” and “feminine” in certain societies, albeit from the frame of hyperbole and contrast. As a premonition and fair warning, it is many parents who break out crying after reading this book to their children, because it explores the primordial concerns of humankind at large, and that too in a moving and emotionally profound manner. A relationship, after all, is a core part of being in this world, whether in the context of a relationship with the “self,” with others, with the environment or with imaginary beings such as invisible friends and fictional characters.

Apart from the multitude of ideas and issues that can be discussed to educate and build awareness in kids as well as adults, other core concerns of an existential nature addressed in the book are: passage of time, erosion of relationships and bonds, growing up, growing older, loss at multiple levels, selfless and endless love, shortsightedness and myopia in seeing and valuing others for what they are, selfish behavior, death, sacrifice of an other versus self-sacrifice, deterioration of innocence, appreciation and consideration for others and the lack of these two, unobstructed greed and unchecked ambition, and finally, human self-obsession. While all these thematic ideas may seem to be overwhelmingly negative and positive in some cases, the book successfully exposes them so we as readers can reflect on them from a personal, interpersonal and collective level.

Naturally, readers will find other ideas and themes that speak to them personally, which is precisely why even the most detailed plotline and even a basic or intricate exercise of literary criticism cannot ever do justice to the book itself. That is why I recommend you muster the courage and read it for yourselves as I once read it when someone dear passed it on to me. Sad heart be brave.