The Giving Tree - Blog Posts

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree is one of those books where I’m shocked there so much controversy with it and shows my how different people’s perspectives can be. Looking at the same situation people believe that The Giving Tree shows a selfish boy who just takes and takes and takes: promoting narcissism and selfishness. In this scenario, the tree may also represent unrealistic goals to new mothers who are supposed to give and give to their child and expect nothing in return or environmentalists who have the boy as a symbol for our destructive pillaging of the planet.

When I read I naturally and by force try to focus on the relationships between characters and how their wants and feelings dictate their actions (as is the case with most humans). I focus on the aspects of the story where the boy and tree are together and how the tree just wants to make the boy happy, and is always happy when he is happy. While I see it as a story of parental love, it really represents all true love, where you want the other person to be happy whether or not that happiness includes you—you want what’s best for them, even if it’s not what’s best for you.

My experiences with parenthood reflect those in the book but only in a simplified version. In the beginning, the boy loves the tree so much, yes he takes from her: her energy, her time, her snacks—but he’s also there with her sharing his time and his laughter and love. As a teen the boy just uses the tree and as a young adult, the boy creates a home, from the foundation of the tree and his own plans and efforts. The last two moments: where the boy is lost and tries to get away and the ending when he just wants to sit on the stump; these are the moments I don’t know we always get to see with our children, unfortunately. Even those who become parents while their own parents are around still say they didn’t appreciate or tell them enough how much they love them—things only realized after they’re gone. It’s sad, of course it’s sad. It’s depressing and shows that people can be too loving and too selfish. As with any book, you can take from it what you want to take from it, from the Giving Tree, I choose to see the relationship as a boy and his Momma, who in the end will be perfectly happy just spending time together; young or old.

Tree

Sometimes I feel like a tree

A tree with little wings that rustle in the wind

I have taken to hating bird brains

Being paralyzed with tension there's nothing I can do when they shit on me

Sometimes I like the rain

I like the washing

It also quenches my thirst

And keeps me sane

I love the cooler air

That sways me,

Unrhythmically

Blowing through my hair

People don’t like rain when it fills up their shoes

I don’t have feet

But I have plenty of rings

And no one I’d like to choose

I dream of flying away

To find a whole new world

My roots are too big

I feel like a tree by the end of the day

Sometimes I feel hurt because of love that is young

What is the point of them carving into me?

Yet their love dies long before I ever will

And on some days I miss where they once swung

On those days I shed a little sap

Hoping new things will stick to my bark

Like a new swing or a new summer fling

On those days I don’t mind the bird crap

Sometimes I flunk

And grow more knots

And become more twisted

On those days I think that I’d prefer to be trunk

Sometimes I feel that I'm not fair to my roots

As they hold me,

I try to strangle myself with them

More than ever, the wise owls give me disapproved hoots

Sometimes I feel like a tree

As the giving tree, I have found limits to my giving

I only give up and never give down

I feel like a tree, stuck to the ground but growing up with reality