The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree, like The Lorax, is another classic tale from my childhood, that some may interpret as a message of conservation, whereas others may find a different moral to the story. The story begins, "Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy." The tree proceeds to try and fulfill the boy's happiness by giving her apples, branches, and trunk until the tree is nothing more than a stump. When the boy returns as an old man and contentedly rests on the stump, the tree is happy again. The anthropomorphism of the tree endears readers to feel compassion for her self-sacrifice and for all the trees that have been felled for human use. The book has been criticized for its message of self-sacrifice on the part of the tree and the selfishness of the boy; however, the end result demonstrates that the boy did not need all the material items he got from the tree's resources to find true happiness. This message is important for children to hear in our culture of overconsumerism. The Giving Tree is open to multiple interpretations which may change with every reading.