Shel Silverstein - Blog Posts

It's National Poetry Month!  I usually celebrate by posting a poem for each day on the door to my office at work.  However, we're closed until at least April 30, so that's not happening this year.  Instead, I'm going to share links to the poems with all of you!  I have something lined up for every day in April; I just have to keep after myself to actually post on a regular basis.

Here's the poem I start with every year: Shel Silverstein's Invitation.  You can hear it read by the author on YouTube, too!

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree is one of those books where I’m shocked there so much controversy with it and shows my how different people’s perspectives can be. Looking at the same situation people believe that The Giving Tree shows a selfish boy who just takes and takes and takes: promoting narcissism and selfishness. In this scenario, the tree may also represent unrealistic goals to new mothers who are supposed to give and give to their child and expect nothing in return or environmentalists who have the boy as a symbol for our destructive pillaging of the planet.

When I read I naturally and by force try to focus on the relationships between characters and how their wants and feelings dictate their actions (as is the case with most humans). I focus on the aspects of the story where the boy and tree are together and how the tree just wants to make the boy happy, and is always happy when he is happy. While I see it as a story of parental love, it really represents all true love, where you want the other person to be happy whether or not that happiness includes you—you want what’s best for them, even if it’s not what’s best for you.

My experiences with parenthood reflect those in the book but only in a simplified version. In the beginning, the boy loves the tree so much, yes he takes from her: her energy, her time, her snacks—but he’s also there with her sharing his time and his laughter and love. As a teen the boy just uses the tree and as a young adult, the boy creates a home, from the foundation of the tree and his own plans and efforts. The last two moments: where the boy is lost and tries to get away and the ending when he just wants to sit on the stump; these are the moments I don’t know we always get to see with our children, unfortunately. Even those who become parents while their own parents are around still say they didn’t appreciate or tell them enough how much they love them—things only realized after they’re gone. It’s sad, of course it’s sad. It’s depressing and shows that people can be too loving and too selfish. As with any book, you can take from it what you want to take from it, from the Giving Tree, I choose to see the relationship as a boy and his Momma, who in the end will be perfectly happy just spending time together; young or old.