Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree

The Price for Everything

Shel Silverstein, author of The Giving Tree, one day got asked by an unknown person about what he wanted most out of life. He replied with a simple word with a powerful meaning, “everything.” Regarding his answer, Silverstein understood that in order for people to get everything they would have to give all. The previous statement is the premise of his famous book, The Giving Tree. Silverstein's story appears to be made for kids but has a meaning intended for both children and adults. Shel Silverstein uses personification, symbolism, and refrain in his book, The Giving Tree, to get the meaning across to people that giving everything for someone will result in joy and in a gain of everything.

To start things off, Silverstein uses a form of figurative language called personification (giving non-human objects human-like characteristics). He gives the tree in, The Giving Tree, a few features that make the tree seem human. For starters, the tree can talk. The tree talks back and forth with the boy telling the boy to take things from her to make him joyful, “. . .Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in the city. Then you

will have money and you will be happy” (page 18). Next, the tree has emotions and feels love for the boy. The tree also experiences sadness every time the boy leaves. Lastly, and the most major way that Silverstein shows personification is the fact that he calls the tree “her” giving the tree a gender. Silverstein uses the following to show personification: “He would climb her trunk. . . And gather her leaves” (pages 6-7). If Silverstein did not give the tree these human characteristics then the audience would not get the same message from the story-that giving all will result in receiving all.
Furthermore, Shel Silverstein shows how a boy and a tree create a friendship and how the tree grows to love the boy. The author creates these characters as if they symbolize a mom and a son. To show symbolism, Silverstein adds this line to his story, “There once was a tree ... and she loved a little boy” (pages 1-2). Continuing on, the story goes on to say that the young boy often visits and uses the branches, the trunk, and the leaves of the tree for entertainment. The tree allows this to happen because she cares strongly for the boy; she cares for the young boy like a mother cares for her child, and in most cases any mother will give up anything for her children. Silverstein uses these examples early on to convey to the audience that this tree truly loves the young boy and will give anything and everything to him to ensure that he has true happiness.
In addition to using symbolism to interpret the meaning that giving all will result in receiving all, Silverstein also uses refrain in his book, The Giving Tree.

Refrain is a recurring phrase or verse that occurs at the end of each stanza or division of a poem. Silverstein uses this example of refrain at the beginning than later on in his story, “Come, Boy, come and climb up my trunk and swing from my branches. . .” (pages 16, 20). The previous quote portrays the first example of refrain used in the poem. Another example of refrain happens to be, “And the tree was happy” (pages 12, 19, 24, 27, and 30). Silverstein uses these sentences to emphasize a point. Even though the boy came to the tree frequently to ask and take things from her, it did not matter to the tree because seeing the boy pleased made the tree better-off and

happy.
In conclusion, although The Giving Tree is a story made for children, it does contain a deeper meaning designed for adults. By breaking down and analyzing, The Giving Tree, the reader should be able to get a sense that this tale means far more than just a tree becoming friends with a boy. Silverstein effectively uses figurative language in his story, The Giving Tree, to create a meaning for adults that there is a price for everything, and in order to receive happiness people must be able to sacrifice.