The Giving Tree

[Cheryl Bybee <cbybee@TENET.EDU>]

Well, as I mentioned I would do several days ago, I have re-read The Giving
Tree.  I can see where the ideas of co-dependency and gender bias could
be read in to it; but I still like it.  Like several others have
mentioned, I still see it as a tale of unconditional love.  My copy is a
French translation.  Since the French word for tree is masculine, that
could explain why I didn't see it as a gender issue.  I believe when I
first read this book, I saw it as a reflection of a parent's
unconditional love and the sad but true fact that children so often don't
understand how much they "take" until they are old.  Yes, I always
recognized the sadness of it.  Being rather Pollyanna-ish most of the
time, I guess I always just assumed that the boy was sad at the end
because by then he surely realized how selfish he had been.  Clearly that
was just me reading something in...but not that hard to do, don't you think.

I can also see how this book could relate to environmental issues.  The
tree might represent "Mother Earth."  It might also represent God and his
children to those who are of a religious bent, which I am not.  As for
Shel Silverstein being an old hippy with hippy sentiments...well...great!
May just be my age (48) but I always thought that there was a lot of good
in the hippy movement, even though even as a youth I rejected large parts
of it.  Is it really so outrageous to want Peace, Love and Brotherhood?

Just MHO :-)

Cheryl
******************************************************************************
        Cheryl Bybee, Director of Library Services --  Northside ISD
        6632 Bandera Road, Bldg. D              San Antonio, TX 78238
                        (210)522-8190     cbybee@tenet.edu
******************************************************************************