The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein Analysis

Trees stand there, not saying a word, frozen. Melinda doesn’t talk a substantial amount in her class and social life, therefore, it is like she is frozen, not speaking. A dead tree can represent how Melinda wasn’t able to speak, the leaves on the dead tree are still clinging onto it, hoping it can live longer. Like that, Melinda would cling onto the idea that she would return to her happy self, maybe being able to freely express herself again. During Melinda’s science class, she draws a willow tree drooping into the water, this represents her sadness. “I look out the window. No limos... Now when I really want to leave, no one will give me a ride. I sketch a willow tree drooping into the water” (page 147). This shows how the willow tree expresses her negative emotion without saying a word. When Melinda’s dad was chopping down their tree; of course, it couldn’t say anything because it is only a tree. “ He is killing the tree... The tree is dying... There’s nothing to do or say. We watch in silence as the tree crashes piece by piece to the damp ground,” (page 187). This shows that when Melinda got raped, she did not say anything, instead she was dying inside, depression taking over. A tree in its various stages was an object that describes Melinda’s freshman year from the beginning to the

“’The next time you work on your trees, don’t think about trees. Think about love, or hate, or joy, or pain – whatever makes you feel something, makes your palms sweat, or your toes curl. Focus on that feeling.’”(122) In the book speak there are many examples of symbolism. The one that stands out the most is the tree as it is mentioned very frequently in almost every chapter of the book. It represents that growth that she goes through as a character from the beginning of the book to the end and her mental recovery after the traumatic event of being raped. The different representations we see of the tree correspond with the state she is in and the emotions she is feeling at that part in the book. When she is struggling with her life she

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.

When the boy was tired he would sleep in the tree's shade. On page 11 and 30 it shows when the tree shows care to the boy. On page 11 it says, "And when he was tired, he would sleep in her shade." And on page 30 it says, "“well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. sit down and rest.” This shows that the tree is very caring every time the boy would ask for something she would gladly give it to him. And when the boy came for the last time she was still glad to help out when the boy was tired. Mothers gladly give what the child wants. They care about them. For example when her child is tired, they could rest on their lap or the mother would take them to their

As the story progresses the woman’s cravings reach a point at which she desired some bark from the Great Tree. However as stated before in the passage, “the tree was not supposed to be marked or mutilated by any of the beings who dwelt in the Sky World”. “The women decided that she wanted some bark” proving that she made a conscious choice to violate the rules. This is a representation of how the Iroquois view women. How dare she, as a woman, decide to do anything without the authorization of a man. When she asked her husband to retrieve the bark he denied her request,

The literal language used in the beginning of the free verse does not imply the tree having any symbolic meaning to the speaker and her mother. It is casually said- “My mother and I debate, we could sell the black walnut tree…[to] pay off the mortgage” - which defines that in these lines the tree has not yet been introduced with its symbolic purpose. Initially, the tree is viewed as a property they are willing to sell. They rationalize the idea by noting that there are “roots in the

The essay I chose to read was “Planting a Tree” by Edward Abbey. To me, the most interesting part of this essay is the shift from describing the terrain, to describing the missile bases located in the area. The way the author describes the military is simply fascinating ,”The life expectancy of the average Tucsonan, therefore, is thirty minutes-or whatever it takes for an ICBM to shuttle from there to here.” Also, whenever the author describes the great contemporary empires ,”Like mortally wounded tyrannosaurs, they thrash out in frenzy, seeking enemies, destroying thousands of innocent lives with each blind spasm of reaction.” The author’s use of active verbs and language makes this story develop in such a way that the story will never fall

In the book “ The Giving Tree” Shel Silverstein wrote “Cut down my trunk and make a boat. Then you can sail away… and be happy” She immediately gave her trunk away to make the boy feel happy. She didn’t even think about how the boy was going to use the wood to sail far away from her. The Giving Tree gave up many things for the boy and not once thought about what she wanted. In “ The Giver” Shel Silverstein also wrote “ And the tree was happy… but not really.” The giving tree gave up so many things for the boy. But each time she gave up something for the boy and then he immediately left, and it made her feel heartbroken. To avoid being heart broken the Giving Tree could easily not give the boy anything but because she cares more about the boy than herself she continued to hurt herself just to make the boy happy. The Giving Tree let boy take everything from her no matter what. She never once thought about herself, which lead some people to think she was strong, but if you never second guess yourself and stand up for yourself, you aren't taking chances. You aren't standing up for what is right. Giving tree loved the boy so much that she never thought to second guess herself and do the right

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

Janie sees that her dreams were more idealistic compared to what her life tured out to be. The tree contains both suffering and joy.

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

When Melinda draws the word tree she says “Tree? It’s too easy” (Anderson, p.12). Melinda thought that making an art project of a tree that had emotion would be easy. She came to find out that it was harder than she had expected. After a week of trying to create her tree out of watercolors, Melinda creates trees that have been hit by lightning. She tries to “paint them so they are nearly dead, but not totally” (Anderson, pp.30-31). This statement reflects how Melinda feels towards life. After she was raped, she felt as if she was dead. She had no one to confide in and all her friends, and even people who were not her friends, were angry with her for calling the cops. She did not have the courage to tell them the reason she called the cops, because she feared they would no longer think of her the same way. Because of this, Melinda lived a lonely life with no one to talk to. She was not completely dead, but was not living her life to the fullest either. The trees she painted with watercolor are a representation of how she sees her

The tree symbolizes Melinda directly . During the time that her tree looks un-lifelike, or is portrayed as dead, Melinda is going through the roughest time of her depression. After Melinda mentally overcomes the rape and talks about it, her trees exhibit changes in appearance: “I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything… it isn’t perfect and that makes it just right.” (198).

Nature’s beauty and bountifulness has been exploited by humans since the beginning of time. The simple story of Shel Silvertein’s, “The Giving Tree”, seems like a leisurely tale of a relationship between a boy and a tree. However, this book can be analyzed in several different ways, resulting in multiple interpretations. My own view of the story is quite cynical. I believe this story is an allegory of the destructive relationship between mankind and nature.

"Blessed is the mother who is able to help her child, at whatever age. This truth about parental happiness is surly known by any loving parents who has been compelled to watch impotently while his child is suffering." The example to prove this statement can be seen all through the story. "The forest is my house, but you may cut of my branches and build a house. Then you will be happy. And so the boy cut of her branches and carried them away to build his house. And the tree was happy." On the other hand, the boy still stays inconsiderate and selfish. He never even once mention to the tree how thankful he is or even a simply "thank you". "The love of the tree for the boy or the man is a selfless love, while the love of the boy for the tree is a selfish love. The boy never tries to help the tree (by pruning, feeding it, et cetera), while the entire being of the tree is devoted to helping the boy meet his most recent need, whether trivial or essential."