The Giving Tree
by Shel Silverstein
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Book Reviews of The Giving Tree
Book Review: IS THE GIVING TREE SMART?
Summary: 3 Stars
Is The Giving Tree Smart? I am asking this, because the first time I read the book, I looked at Silverstein's tree and thought: What a fool! Not being born in this country, I was never given the chance to read The Giving Tree until recently. And although I loved Silverstein's purified, poetic language (the reason his book gets three stars instead of one), I hated the message. Specially when I realized the tree was a "she." So once again, women are expected to sacrifice. I am sorry, but if I believe love, with a balance of heart and reason, is healthy, I am convinced sacrifice is not. Try to run your car without gasoline. Human beings (women too, imagine!) need to be fueled in order to function. I have seen so many women go into depression, even nervous breakdowns, because they spent their lives giving without receiving. In the end, they don't know who they are, a dangerous state that needs rescue. We are put on this earth to blossom, not to have our trunk amputated. On an environmentalist level, I am also convinced that Silversten's message is too ambiguous. How about teaching kids, and grown ups for that matter, to respect nature. Mother Nature is so giving already --and often smarter than we are; do we need to sacrifice her, too? Haven't we done so time and again already to the point that, like many women, she needs rescue? How about practicing respect instead; how about practicing the balancing act of giving and receiving, so that rescue is not needed? This is the question I asked myself when I started writing a response to The Giving Tree that I titled, guess what, The Smart Tree. I received such an overwhelmingly positive response from women that I plan to submit it to publishers. If you agree with my message, wish me luck.
Book Review: PLEASE DON'T LET YOUR KIDS READ THIS (at the very least not ALONE!)
Summary: 3 Stars
In an interview in the early 60's Silverstein said that he wrote this little book for adults. I remember receiving this book when I was about five years old and it depressed the hell out of me. First off, that ugly little troll of a kid was a brat with a capital B. He later went from being a bratty kid to an ugly, self-centered troll of a man. Talk about taking that little lady (the tree) for a ride! That SOB used her up and used her up but good. And for what? In the end, it didn't even matter and neither one of them were happy. That tree also infuriated me as a kid. Why don't you tell that jerk to take a hike! Why do you let this idiot take advantage of you like this? What kind of friend does that to another friend? The bottom line, this is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. It makes novels like "Crime & Punishment" and "The Jungle" a joy to read. To this day, I still get depressed every time I even see this book. One of my in-laws wanted to buy this book for our new born baby as a gift and I told her that that would be fine as long as it's on his sixteenth birthday.
I know I am going to get a lot of negative votes for this review. Yet, if I can just get one person out there to stop giving their kids this very depressing book to read, then this was worth it. I like the book and I really enjoy most of Silverstein's work. This book is what he is known best for, but unfortunately he has so much other work out there, which is much better and far more conducive for children than this gut-wrenching story. The world is depressing enough as it is. Kids don't need a story like this before they go to bed at night. If they are anything like I was as a child, this book will depress and addle them like no other.
Book Review: Unconditional Love is not a license to abuse others
Summary: 1 Stars
There are many stories out there about unconditional love that doesn't involve a life long cycle of abuse and abandonment. This story describes an unhealthy relationship between a boy and a tree. The term "co-dependent" comes to mind. Is my child supposed to identify with the tree that is treated like a doormat it's entire life or the narcissistic child who takes and takes? Is this a social commentary on the giving nature of females (the tree is female) or the ruthless and thoughtless destruction by males in today's world?
I would not want my daughter to model herself after the tree, giving and giving in a destructive cycle, giving so much of herself in order to please others until there is nothing left and never receiving anything in return. I'd hate to think I taught her to be a doormat, or that I'd given her the impression that it's ok to be in a destructive relationship because "he says he loves me". If this were a marriage, I can just imagine the wife saying "I know he beats me, sleeps with other women, and drinks a lot, but it's ok because he still comes home to me on the weekends."
If I had a son, I would not want him to think that he can destroy the one that loves him to get what he wants. He does not even consider that his actions are destroying the tree until there is nothing left but a stump. Am I teaching that it is ok to take and never give back? To not think about the feelings of others?
There are better ways of teaching a child about love, giving and compassion than this book. I want more for my children and their relationships than that. Denying them any of their wants or expecting them to make their own way in the world doesn't mean that I don't love them unconditionally.
Book Review: or taking boy?
Summary: 5 Stars
recently to my pleasant surprise I found a copy of The Giving Tree for a quarter at the local library book sale. I brought it home & showed my wife and she said: "I can't believe you got that book, it's so sad". I'll admit I may have scoffed a little. Then I read it and darn near found my eyes growing moist. I just felt so sorry for the tree that I wanted to pistol whip that selfish, acquisitive kid/man. Which brings us to the question: Is it possible that this slender children's book is one of the most insightful comments ever written on the "Me" generation?This may strike you as absurd, but take a look at the First Things Symopsium about the book which can be found online. For my own part, I read the book as a tragedy, and despite my initial reaction, the boy/man strikes me as the tragic figure. He is completely consumed by selfish concerns and what he can get from the tree. The story could equally well be called The Taking Boy. And in the twilight of his life, what does he have left after taking and taking and taking? Nothing. In fact, he has to return to the tree and ask for more. The final scene seems less of a "reconciliation" than one more desperate act of selfish consumption on his part. It reminded me of Citizen Kane, with Charles Foster Kane looking back at his life from his death bed and realizing how unfulfilled he is.
Silverstein was just a tad older than the Baby Boomers, but his status as a pop icon rested on their enthusiasm. So it's ironic that they made him a best-selling author by blindly reading this truly devastating critique of their cohort and their lifestyle to their kids. Ironic, but delicious.
GRADE: Giving Tree: A+
Book Review: Despair, delusion, and doormats
Summary: 2 Stars
I remember when I first read "The Giving Tree" and it always disturbed me greatly. A tree, depicted as a female, gives a little boy a place to play, fruit to eat, shade to enjoy. Then the boy grows older and takes away everything the tree owns; he sells the fruit, cuts down her branches, and finally chops down her trunk so he can sail away from her. And the tree continues to love the boy, and the tree was still happy.Do you remember the first time you realized that there wasn't any Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus? That's how I felt when I saw that poor, pathetic drawing of a stump, with the text "And the tree was happy." If that is the point of the story, that the tree was deluding herself about the boy, then why does she accept him when he returns 50 years later, a worn-out husk himself? The boy not only took everything away from the tree, he goes on to create a family that abandons him in turn, no doubt because he was such a selfish pig. And THAT is the tree's payoff for her unconditional love?
It seems the message the book gives little girls is that the way they can find happiness is by giving everything, absolutely everything, of themselves to little boys. And all they will get in return is that maybe, possibly, these boys might return to them in the end, as tired old men.
If you have a little girl, please do not give her this book. Instead I recommend Robert Munch's delightful "Paper Bag Princess," where the princess rescues the prince from the fierce dragon (through cleverness and determination) only to be criticized for what a mess she is. And the little girl tells the prince that he looks terrific, but he's really a bum, and doesn't marry him after all.