Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree

Shel Silverstein is an accomplished poet, cartoonist, songwriter, and playwright that has made an impact on children’s literature in ways that one could never imagine. Silverstein’s quirky writing style and fun black and white cartoons attached to his poems, drew many kids to enjoy his poetry even though they did not have happy endings. Many young children thrive on the notion of happy endings always being the end result, but Silverstein was able to create literature without this ¨perfect¨ ending while still being widely popular in the 20th century and continued into the 21st century. The reasoning behind Silverstein’s lack of a utopian environment and atmosphere is due to the experiences he has encountered, therefore, causing him to destroy

The speaker conveys family value is more important than any monetary value. The tree represents the growth of the family and how it is now intertwined with the house through the, "roots in the cellar drains" (Oliver 11). Nothing can replace the sentimental value the tree represents. There is a shift in the theme from the beginning. The speaker wanted to sell the tree for the money, demonstrating theme that sometimes things must be sacrificed in order to provide for practical needs.

The tree would take care of the boy. When the boy would come each time to ask for something the tree was willing to give anything

“ You are weak when you lie because you aren't strong enough to face the truth” - quotediary.me The book “ The Giving tree” written by Shel Silverstein was created into a children's book in 1964. This book was written for children but, it also had certain ideas for older people. The book is about a tree and how much she loves a boy. She loves this boy so much that she would do anything for him even if it ended up hurting her. In the book “ The Giving Tree” Shel Silverstein emphasized that the Giving Tree was weak because she loved the boy more than herself, she let the boy take whatever he wanted from her just to make him happy including, things that made her who she was, and she never taught

The Giving Tree becomes so absorbed in her concerns for the Boy that she neglects to truly take care of herself. While Silverstein states in the poem that the Giving Tree loved the Boy, all of her subsequent actions benefited the Boy and harmed herself. She was only content when caring for the Boy; she never seemed to be complete by herself. Thus, when the little Boy wanted money, she gave her fruits to him to sell. She gifted her branches to him, so that he could build the house he wanted. Then she gifted her trunk, so that the Boy could sail away in his own boat. By the time the Boy had aged into seniority, he had already reduced the Tree to a stump. In relation to self care, it’s also vitally important to remove toxicity in your life. Somebody who drains you of energy is toxic. The Boy came back time and time again to ask for more, and then would leave her behind

The novel Speak by Laurie Hales Anderson shows Melinda Sordino struggling through the year, and her recovery from the painful memory of getting raped at the party in summer break. In the beginning of the story, the story shows how bad Melinda feels and then she changes and starts growing and at the final stage of the story Melinda becomes a strong hard oaktree-like person. In the book Speak, the author symbolizes the tree to show Melinda’s change from being an outcast to being an accepted person; this also supports the theme: time can help heal one’s painful memories.In the beginning of the year, her trees looked like trees that existed nowhere on earth, but by the end of the year, her trees were breathing and looked as if they had shot up

Alice Walker once said, “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.” This aligns perfectly with metaphors in the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. In this story, Laurie uses the symbol of a tree to represent the main character, Melinda, as she struggles to overcome a difficult experience in her life. The trees represent Melinda’s transformation from trying to be someone she wasn’t, to becoming utterly depressed, to overcoming her pain, and being a happy, refreshed person.

Granpa takes Little Tree to the mountaintop at dawn, to watch the mountain “coming alive”. As Little Tree watches and feels the mountain awakening, he realizes that he and Granpa have “an understanding that most folks don’t know” (Carter 8). Granpa said, “Folks who laugh and say that all is known about Nature, and that Nature don’t have a soul spirit, have never been in a mountain spring storm. When She’s birthing spring, She gets right down to it, tearing at the mountains like a birthing woman clawing at the bed quilts” (Carter 102). Little Tree is taught to sense his connection with Mother Earth, so he will live in harmony with the land, animals, and other people in the world. Little Tree learns that everything in nature has a

The tree represents nature’s beauty and abundance, and the boy represents humankind. The boy is symbolic of human’s perpetual degradation of nature, tearing down the tree to suit his own needs and destroying something beautiful for the sake of selfishness. The benevolent and generous tree,

It shows how his writings were in when he was at his best. This short poem involves a little boy and a tree. The tree treats the boy as it’s his best friend and it keeps giving him what he needs because he loves the boy. I'm the quote “The boy sat, and the tree was happy” it shows how happy the boy really made the tree when he was with it. Later in the story the tree constantly gives the boy it's wood and the boy just takes it with nothing in return. But the tree keeps giving him it because he loves the boy. In the end all that is left of the tree is the stump and it still gives the boy something, a seat. It shows a good message to young readers that you shouldn't keep taking things from people and it's a good thing to give to others if you do truly love and care for them. This is a classic writing from Shel

This tree compares to Gopal and how even with all of the change and all of the hardships he’s still standing as strong as he can be. It is told from Gopal’s perspective to show the struggles of an 11 year old boy from his mindset. The language used at time throughout the book remind readers of how young this character truly

While most kids won’t understand the deeper meaning behind this book, the giving tree is a lovely example of selfless, unconditional love. Children sometimes struggle to focus on people other than themselves. The Giving Tree introduces how life can be lived completely in the service of others. A teacher may use this book to encourage students to show more respect

The Giving Tree is a modern children literature written by Shel Silverstein, which is also one of his first successful piece of work. It is about an apple tree who always gives and gives and a boy who always takes and takes. This might be another story to read before bed times for the kids but however, it portrays so many things, from deforestation to modern society. Personally, I believe that The Giving Tree portrays the theme of selflessness versus selfishness, like the unconditional love a parent has for his or her child.

One similarity that subsists between humans and trees is that of their sense of individuality. In diverse ways, each human and tree display their unique sense of character. No two trees display the same characteristics, just as no two humans ever display the same personality. Both humans and trees are a source of their roots. However, the branch of similarity between humans and trees doesn’t only extend between their source of individuality.

“The Giving Tree” is an incredible story of a tree and a boy who keep their friendships through their whole life. The book has many things that explain the concept of Friendship. As in life, the boy and tree go through many phases in life and manage to support their friendship. How did they keep their Friendship? In “The Giving Tree”, Shel Silverstein uses the characters of the tree and the boy to explain the theme of Friendship and Love throughout time.