What is "The Giving Tree" about?

[Savonarola]

Here is a text of The Giving Tree, without illustrations, for those who have never read it:  http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/35C1809B-B30D-450E-AE7C-1F399C7CA5AF/155278/TheGivingTreePoem.pdf

I came across this Wikipedia article the other day, and wondered what people took out of "The Giving Tree."

[Savonarola]

Personally I went with the nihilistic option.  Exhibit A is Shel Silverstein's portrait on the dust jacket:

[mongers]

Exec sum pls.

[Savonarola]

Exec sum pls.

[Malthus]

World's most divisive children's book.   

I took it as a parable about a parental relationship, by someone who didn't think much of humans. 

[celedhring]

I'll go with the nihilism too. It clearly depicts a slave (morally speaking) destructively taking advantage of his betters using his neediness and weakness to instill guilt.

That, or some sick view of parenting.

[garbon]

World's most divisive children's book.   

I took it as a parable about a parental relationship, by someone who didn't think much of humans. 

This

[Barrister]

It could fit as a parable of Christ's love for mankind.  Trouble is Silverstein was Jewish.

Environmental message doesn't sound very likely since the tree is happy even after having been chopped down.

The friendship interpretation doesn't really seem to fit either.  The boy abandoned his friend the tree, but still the tree remained his friend and was happy?

Parenting seems about right, except it's such a warped view of parenting - that parents role is only to give without thought and without end.

[The Minsky Moment]

World's most divisive children's book.   

Lots of competition there.

[Martinus]

I think it is an allegory of the soul (not understood in the sense of ritualistic faith, but as your childlike sense of wonder, your Jungian anima, your connection with the divine). You are connected with it when you are young, and then you end up selling it out, neglecting it, for material things and it withers away as you trade it for comfort, compromising on your principles, your integrity, your true nature. But in the end you go back to it, no matter how stumped it has become.

[Malthus]

I think it is an allegory of the soul. You are connected with it when you are young, and then you end up selling it out, neglecting it, for material things. But in the end you go back to it, no matter how stumped it has become.

I was gonna say 'the first person to answer the OP's question with "I'm stumped" gets fifty lashes'. 

[Martinus]

It could fit as a parable of Christ's love for mankind.  Trouble is Silverstein was Jewish.

Then it only makes sense he used the allegory of a tree - as in the Qabbalistic tree of life, the symbol of the connection between the Divine and the world of matter.

[Martinus]

I think it is an allegory of the soul. You are connected with it when you are young, and then you end up selling it out, neglecting it, for material things. But in the end you go back to it, no matter how stumped it has become.

I was gonna say 'the first person to answer the OP's question with "I'm stumped" gets fifty lashes'. 

Shush you.

Better tell me what you think of my interpretation (as edited).

[Malthus]

Shush you.

Better tell me what you think of my interpretation (as edited).

It's clever, but you have to work in a reason why the "tree" keeps being happy with each 'taking'.

[Martinus]

Shush you.

Better tell me what you think of my interpretation (as edited).

It's clever, but you have to work in a reason why the "tree" keeps being happy with each 'taking'.

Because it is infinite and it is in its nature to provide. It is the Holy Grail, and its nature is to nourish.