The Giving Tree

[Rachel]

Guys, "The Giving Tree" makes me really mad. Someone just posted about it on facebook, so I decided to re-read it (I'll be honest, I barely remembered it). That boy is just so messed up.

I know that a lot of people say that the tree is supposed to have this motherly love for the boy, and no matter what he does she is always there for him. But at the same point, someone needs to tell that kid no. I mean, I know my mother will always be there for me, but will I destroy her for something and not even bother to visit? Would I come back to her only when I needed something and expect her to say yes? The answer to that is a big fat no. My mother would tell me that until I learned to appreciate what she gave me I wouldn't get anymore. My mother would make me grow up and own up to my mistakes, instead of being blindly ignoring them and pretending they never happened.

That tree is not a good mother, and that boy is not a good boy. That tree pampered that kid to the point that he doesn't need to be responsible for his own decisions. He becomes an old man and still expects the tree to be there for him. That tree was too afraid to be a parent, so I don't even want to hear about it having motherly love for that boy. If she had some maternal bond for him, she would have let him grow up.

And that is my rant for the evening. Sorry, I'm studying for a quiz and I couldn't focus until I ranted to someone. If I'm misunderstanding something, someone please tell me. I really hope that this universally loved poem has some reason why everyone likes it and I'm just missing it.

[pretzel]

I always thought the point of the giving tree was to essentially show how greedy and unthankful people can be. The little boy asks and asks for everything from the tree (Mother Earth) and doesn't appreciate her at all in return. In the end, even he is too weak to take from her anymore, but she gives the last thing she can offer - all of herself.

I think it's supposed to be a sort of analogy for how we treat the earth. We take from nature and use it to make money and keep us safe and warm, but we don't give anything back in return. And by the time we realize our mistake, by the time we see how much harm we've done, it'll be too late. We'll have depleted the earth's resources too much for them to be of much use to us anymore.

Overall, I think it means not to take people or things or nature for granted. Because you don't know when it could all go away. And by then, it'll be too late.