The Giving Tree

Silverstein had difficulty finding a publisher for The Giving Tree. An editor at Simon & Schuster rejected the book's manuscript because he felt that it was "too sad" for children and "too simple" for adults. Harper & Row published a small first edition of the book, consisting of only 5,000–7,500 copies, in 1964. ==Plot==

The book follows the lives of an apple tree and a boy, who develop a relationship with each other. The tree is very "giving" and the boy ages into a "taking" teenager, a young man, a middle-aged man, and finally an elderly man. Despite the fact that the boy ages in the story, the tree addresses him as "Boy" throughout his entire life. In his childhood, the boy enjoys playing with the tree, climbing her trunk, swinging from her branches, carving "Me + T (Tree)" into the bark, and eating her apples. However, as the boy grows older, he spends less time with the tree and tends to visit her only when he wants material items at various stages of his life, or not coming to the tree alone [such as bringing his girlfriend to the tree and carving "Me +Y.L." (her initials, often assumed to be an initialism for "young love") into the tree]. In an effort to make the boy happy at each of these stages, the tree gives him parts of herself, which he can transform into material items, such as money from her apples when the boy is a teenager, or a house from her branches when the boy is a young man, and with every stage of giving, "the Tree was happy". However, when the boy is a middle-aged man and asks to chop the tree to make himself a boat, which the tree allows, "the Tree was happy... but not really". In the final pages, both the tree and the boy feel the consequences of their respective "giving" and "taking" nature. When only a stump remains for the tree, the boy returns as a tired elderly man to meet the tree once more. She mentions she cannot provide him shade, apples, or any materials like in the past. The man tells her that all he wants is "a quiet place to sit and rest", which the tree, who is weak being just a stump, could provide. With this final stage of giving, "the Tree was happy". ==Reception==

Interest in the book increased by word of mouth; for example, in churches "it was hailed as a parable on the joys of giving". By 2011, 8.5 million copies of the book had been sold. In the 2007 online "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children" poll by the National Education Association, the book came in third. It was 85th of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. Scholastic Parent & Child magazine placed it #9 on its list of "100 Greatest Books for Kids" in 2012. == Interpretations ==

The book prompted a diverse scope of interpretations from several critics. These can be summarized: Religious interpretations Ursula Nordstrom attributed the book's success partially to "Protestant ministers and Sunday-school teachers", who believed that the tree represents "the Christian ideal of unconditional love". Environmental interpretations Some have interpreted the tree as Mother Nature and the boy represents humanity. The book has been used to teach children environmental ethics. An educational resource for children describes the book as an "allegory about the responsibilities a human being has for living organisms in the environment". Lisa Rowe Fraustino states that "some curricula use the book as a what-not-to-do role model". Another writer's criticism of this interpretation is that the tree appears to be an adult when the boy is young, and cross-generational friendships are rare. Mother–child interpretations A common interpretation of the book is that the tree and the boy have a mother–son relationship, as in a 1995 collection of essays about the book edited by Richard John Neuhaus in the journal First Things. Among the essayists, some were positive about the relationship; for example, Amy A. Kass wrote about the story that "it is wise and it is true about giving and about motherhood", and her husband Leon R. Kass encourages people to read the book because the tree "is an emblem of the sacred memory of our own mother's love". == Criticism and controversy ==

Elizabeth Bird, writing for the School Library Journal, described The Giving Tree as "one of the most divisive books in children's literature". Criticism revolves about the depiction of the relationship between the boy and the tree. Winter Prosapio said that the boy never thanks the tree for its gifts. In an interview with Horn Book Magazine, Phyllis J. Fogelman, an editor with Harper & Row, said the book is "about a sadomasochistic relationship" and "elevates masochism to the level of a good", which mirrors Mary Daly's analysis in Gyn/Ecology: the Metaethics of Radical Feminism. One college instructor discovered that the book caused both male and female remedial reading students to be angry because they felt that the boy exploited the tree. For teaching purposes, he paired the book with a short story by Andre Dubus entitled "The Fat Girl" because its plot can be described as The Giving Tree "in reverse". In 2020, playwright Topher Payne released an alternate ending for the book, which he called The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries, with art in the style of the original. In Payne's version, after the boy requests that the tree give him her branches so that he can make a house, the tree explains that "proper boundaries must be established for a healthy relationship." The boy and the tree remain friends, and eventually go into business together, with the boy selling apple pies made from the tree's fruit. Payne subsequently explained that he had found The Giving Tree problematic ever since reading it as a child, "because the boy was such an unlikeable character." Author's photograph The photograph of Silverstein on the back cover of the book has attracted negative attention, with some people finding it frightening. This photograph and the attention it received was touched upon in the children's novel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by author Jeff Kinney. Protagonist Greg Heffley states that the photograph of Silverstein on the back cover of The Giving Tree terrified him as a child, and that his father would exploit this fear, saying to his son that if he got out of bed at night, he would "probably run into Shel Silverstein in the hallway". ==Cultural influences and adaptations==

Other versions A short animated film of the book, produced in 1973, featured Silverstein's narration. Silverstein also wrote a song of the same name, which was performed by Bobby Bare and his family on his album ''Singin' in the Kitchen'' (1974). Silverstein created an adult version of the story in a cartoon entitled "I Accept the Challenge". In the cartoon, a nude woman cuts off a nude man's arms and legs with scissors, then sits on his torso in a pose similar to the final drawing in The Giving Tree in which the old man sits on the stump. that use comedy to change the story and its message. And later, writer Topher Payne came up with an alternate ending by modifying the second half of the book, calling it "The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries". Cultural influences The Giving Tree Band took its name from the book. Plain White T's EP ''Should've Gone to Bed has a song "The Giving Tree", written by Tim Lopez. The 2010 short film I'm Here, written and directed by Spike Jonze, is based on The Giving Tree; the main character Sheldon is named after Shel Silverstein. God of War Ragnarök director Eric Williams compared Sindri to The Giving Tree'', as Sindri would constantly help in providing new and useful items for Kratos and Atreus without really getting anything back in return, until finally he had nothing left following Brok's death, similar to when the tree was reduced to nothing but a stump. == See also ==