The Giving Tree

Don't do it, Giving Tree!

"Once there was a tree... and she loved a little boy." —Shel Silverstein

A selfless tree falls in love with a boy and sacrifices everything she has to make the boy happy.

One of Shel Silverstein's best known works from an anthology of stories from a book of the same name. It is widely believed to be a metaphor for human, and especially parent-child, relationships. This story is one of the most controversial children's books in existence, too, with the most sinister interpretation of the boy being a selfish ghoul who slowly kills his friend the most popular one. This analysis covers just about every angle the story can be read from.

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If read as a metaphor this work provides examples of

• Happiness in Slavery
• Heroic Sacrifice: The Giving Tree, of course.
• I Just Want to Be Loved
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
• Love Makes You Crazy
• Love Martyr
• Parental Substitute
• Rule of Symbolism: Things like the tree being able to talk as well as being alive even after being cut down are easy to Hand Wave if you take this story as an allegory.

If read without metaphor this work provides examples of:

• Axe Crazy: The boy.
• Kick the Dog: Every time the boy takes wood from the Giving Tree.
• Plant Person

Read either way this work is an example of:

• All Take and No Give: The first variety is this story in a nutshell.
• Extreme Doormat: Poor Giving Tree.
• Fix Fic/The Moral Substitute: "The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries", where the Tree learns to say no.
• No Name Given: The tree is never named, nor is the boy. This has a purpose.
• Sesame Street Cred: An adaptation of the story was performed on Sesame Street in 1973 by the Little Theatre of the Deaf.
• Vicious Cycle: One of giving and then being asked for more, and more... and more...