Analyzing Shel Silverstein's 'The Giving Tree'

572 Words2 Pages

Literary Essay Rough Draft

Who takes care of you? Your mother, father, grandma, grandfather, etc. Your guardians will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, fed, clothed because you are their first priority in any situation whatsoever. As kids you can be blinded by how much your parents do for you. In The Giving Tree, Shel silverstein uses personification to show the relationship between a mother and son.

One way that the tree acts like a mother to the boy is by providing the boy with money. The tree gave the boy apples for money.Since the boy got older he got bigger and he wanted to do different things such as wanting to buy stuff with money, so the tree(mother) provided the boy money to buy something."I am too big to climb and play" said the boy .I have only leaves and apples. Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in the city. Then you will have money and you will be happy said the tree." This shows that the tree(mother) cares for the boy and will do anything for him if he is in need. The boy is getting older and bigger so he can’t do the things that he could do when he was younger.The tree(mother) gives the boy apples because …show more content…

The boy is getting older again and he needs bigger stuff than just money for little stuff."I want a house to keep me warm," he said. "I want a wife and I want children,and so I need a house the boy said”."The forest is my house,but you may cut off my branches and build a house” the tree said.So the boy wanted family and a house to keep his family warm. The tree had no house, but the tree did have branches so he let the boy take her branches and use them to build a house.The tree gives her branches to the boy because he wants a family and house to keep warm. The tree shows the relation between a mother and son by providing things when he is in

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of the Poem Black Walnut Tree by Mary Oliver

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    The tree “swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit.” This sentence evokes images of happiness and serenity; however, it is in stark contrast with “month after month, the whip-crack of the mortgage.” The tone of this phrase is harsh and the onomatopoeia of a “whip crack” stirs up images of oppression. The final lines of the poem show the consequences that the family accepts by preserving the tree—their family heritage. When the speaker judges the tree by its cover she sees monetary value, but when she looks at the content in the book she find that it represents family. Even though times may be tough for the family, they are united by memories of their ancestors.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Mothers in All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    No matter what actions or words a mother chooses, to a child his or her mother is on the highest pedestal. A mother is very important to a child because of the nourishing and love the child receives from his or her mother but not every child experiences the mother’s love or even having a mother. Bragg’s mother was something out of the ordinary because of all that she did for her children growing up, but no one is perfect in this world. Bragg’s mother’s flaw was always taking back her drunken husband and thinking that he could have changed since the last time he...

    Read More

  • A Wall Of Fire Rising Summary

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    The father, Guy struggled for work he wanted his son Little Guy to work as well but his mom Lili wouldn't allow it. This family was not well off, “The rattling door of his tiny shack. His wife, Lili, was squatting in the middle of their one room home, spreading cornmeal mush on banana leaves for supper.” (Pg.45) This quote represents how poor and desperate this family is, they have fallen to eating off banana leaves in a one room shack. Guy begins to really be affected by the family's lack of money and poor living conditions, “ I just want to take that big balloon and ride it up in the air. I’d sail off somewhere and keep floating until I got to a really nice place with a nice plot of land where I could be something new. I’d build my own house, keep my own garden. Just be something new” (Pg.61) Guy has become so desperate he wants to run away from everything. Later on Lili was out for her morning water run when, “On her way back, the sun had already melted a few gray clouds. She found the boy standing alone in the yard with a terrified expression on his face, the old withered mushrooms uprooted at his feet. He ran up to meet her” (Pg.63) At this point in the story, after all of Guys reactions and things he has said begin to unfold,”’It’s Papa,’ he said finally, raising a stiff finger in the air. The boy covered his face as his mother looked up at the sky. A

    Read More

  • Addiction to Cocaine in The Ascent by Ron Rash

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jared’s harsh environment suggests something will have to change in his life. No child should have to live in an unstable environment where nothing is provided for them. Ron Rash writes, “ On Monday morning the Baggies were empty and his parents were sick. His mother sat on the couch wrapped in a quilt, shivering” (285). Jared’s parent’s cocaine addiction is to the point that they need it to survive. His parent’s drug addiction obstructs their ability to provide for him. Jared realizes his parent are improvising with a log because they are incapable of providing a real Christmas tree when he converses with his dad, “‘you and your momma go ahead and light our Christmas tree. I’ll be back in a few minutes.’ ‘It’s not a Christmas tree,’ Jared said. ‘Sure it is, son,’ his father replied, ‘it’s just one that’s chopped up is all’” (283). He cannot keep living a life with no hope that his parents will provide for him. He will probably not make much of himself in life knowing his parents cannot provide for him due to their addiction.

    Read More

  • Allusions In The Giving Tree

    1292 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Giving Tree was first published in 1964 by Harper & Row and was written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. Silverstein was a controversial children’s book author due to his long connotation with Playboy and his lack of patience around families. Despite this, Silverstein sold more than ten million copies of The Giving Tree. It remains a classic picture book. It has a prominent green cover but the words and pictures are black and white and displayed in a minimalistic way. There are many interpretations of what the actual relationship of the boy and tree is based on. A mother and son’s bond is one that always circulates through discussions, but a religious view is an interesting way to interpret this book. God is portrayed as the tree giving the young child who grows into adulthood, his unconditional love with little to no return. There are also many biblical allusions from the

    Read More

  • Concentration Camps In The Book Night By Elie Wiesel

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

        “If you don’t stop crying I will no longer bring you bread, understand?” (63). This is one example of a father/son relationship where the father was feeding the kid and starving himself. In this way the father is taking care of his kid like a normal father would do. The father tried to keep the kid not worried about his life so that he wouldn’t be scared.

    Read More

  • "The Mouse and His Child"

    373 Words  | 1 Pages

    While the elephant/mama had grown accustom to her royal lifestyle at the dollhouse in the store, she began to be snooty to her family. In replying to why she had been at the store so long she stated, "I'm part of the establishment...and this is my house." (5). It is not until she has been separated from her possessions and the family that she realizes how well off she was when the family was together. When she sees the father and child cutting the tree, she is "completely overwhelmed" (127). Until then she had only thought of herself. She realizes the error of their split as "a world of love and pain was printed on her vision" (128).

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Christmas Turkey And The Third Bank Of The River

    1685 Words  | 4 Pages

    The narrator tells the stories displaying a connection with his father. In “The Christmas Turkey” the son has conflicts with his father because he blames his father’s death for trying to ruin Christmas. The death of his father causes grief to the entire family making it hard for the family member to move on. This implies that the father has a powerful hold on the family. The son in “The Third Bank of the River” has a stronger connection with his father. Even after his father left him behind, he still tries to connect by providing foods along the banks of the river. He thinks he was the only one that truly understands what the father wants. Also, he felt affection and respect to his father, especially when other people praise him that he look and act more like his father. Over time when the other family member moved away, he was the only one that decided to remain behind. When the son got older, he decided that he would take his father’s place, but fear takes over and he runs away. Nevertheless, he decided when death comes that he wanted to be put into a canoe and travel down the river like his

    Read More

  • Suppression of Individuality in Radiohead's, Fake Plastic Trees

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first two verses, which reveal the tragic consequences of pretense, evoke feelings of despair and pointlessness. The image of a woman watering a plastic money tree is heavily shadowed by shades of existentialism. The act of nurturing is the woman's attempt to create something genuine, something reflecting her identity. The bleak, futile reality lies in the fact that her "creation" thrives unto itself, surviving as the product of society's goals and inhibitions and outlooks, not hers. The plastic tree is a misconstrued representation of her true self. Helpless and beguiled, she falls victim to the ruthless nature of society and its indifference to the individual experience.

    Read More

  • The Tree Bombal Analysis

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is used to explain how Brigida is beginning to develop into an independent woman like the tree builds away from the soil of the ground and overcomes the stones, Brigida is able to overcome a suppressive marriage and start to think and act for herself as a woman. Throughout page 14, after the tree is cut down, the room that Brigida always admired the tree in is lit up like never before and the world is opened up from the windows point of view. This event in the story brings light into Brigida’s life getting a new opening and pursuing it even under the anti-feministic society that she lives in. “The tree, Luis the tree! They have cut down the rubber tree” (14). As the story begins to end, in an unforgiving manner Brigida tells Luis that it’s time for her to leave after the time that they had spent together was just miserable for her. The tree represents a yearning for a change that Brigida holds as a have to thing after this marriage is over. A new beginning for the street corner can come as a new tree is planted in the spot of the old tree. Just as a new beginning can come for Brigida with a new marriage or a new endeavor on her own. Brigida matures as a person because of how she realizes she doesn’t need someone to hide the world from her when she can be independent and inspire to see it

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Shame In 'The Glass Of Milk'

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the end of the story, the boy decides to finally eat. Though he still has no money to pay for food he decides to go to a restaurant and leave without paying. The narrator says, “He did not dare to look at her: it seemed to him that if he did so she would become aware of his frame of mind and his shameful intentions” (1158). The boy’s plan to eat the food and leave without paying starts to make him feel guilty. Even though he still feels too embarrassed to look at the waitress, he puts his need to eat before his feelings. After that moment the boy starts to cry in front of the waitress. She brings another plate of cookies to the boy and he eats them. The narrator says, “He ate slowly, without thinking about anything, as if nothing had happened, as if he were in his own house and his mother were that lady behind the counter” (1158). In this moment, the boy eats and does not think about himself crying. He eats the cookies and is comfortable because he feels like he is at home. He also feels comfort because he imagines the waitress is his mother. The boy relating the woman to his mother shows the reason why he must eat, because his mother is important to

    Read More

  • James Joyce's Araby - The Symbol of the Church in Araby

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story opens with a description of the Dublin neighborhood where the boy lives. Strikingly suggestive of a church, the image shows the ineffectuality of the Church as a vital force in the lives of the inhabitants of the neighborhood-the faithful within the Church. North Richmond Street is composed of two rows of houses with “brown imperturbable faces" (the pews) leading down to the tall "un-inhabited house" (the empty altar). The boy's own home is set in a garden the natural state of which would be like Paradise, since it contains a "central apple tree"; however, those who should have cared for it have allowed it to become desolate, and the central tree stands alone amid "a few straggling bushes." At dusk when the boy and his companions...

    Read More

  • Christian G Stress

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    He describes his mom as a very energetic and life-of-the-party type person. He noticed that everyone felt the loss of his mom, but no one felt it quite like him. Since he basically grew up without a dad, this was his mentor and the person he looked up to, He knew that now his little brothers looked up to him the same way he looked up to his mom,

    Read More

  • Father and Son in The Road and The Pursuit of Happyness

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    At first the relationship between a father and his son can be perceived as a simple companionship. However, this bond can potentially evolve into more of a dynamic fitting relationship. In The Road The Man and his son have to depend on one another because they each hold a piece of each other. The Man holds his sons sense of adulthood while the son posses his father’s innocence. This reliance between the father and son create a relationship where they need each other in order to stay alive. “The boy was all that stood between him and death.” (McCarthy 29) It is evident that without a reason to live, in this case his son, The Man has no motivation to continue living his life. It essentially proves how the boy needs his father to love and protect him, while the father needs the boy to fuel ...

    Read More

  • Why Is A Father Important Role

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    Is showing you a mother can only do but some much so thats why the need a father figure to help with a boy in to protect a girl .This detail is important because the father is more physical than a mother would be on their child get in trouble or in

    Read More

More about Analyzing Shel Silverstein's 'The Giving Tree'

Open Document