The very sad story The Giving
Tree, written in 1963, by Shel Silverstein reminds young readers to appreciate and care for nature for all it offers. When the boy was young he would ?play in her leaves?, climb up her trunk?, swing up her branches?, and eat her apples.? They were wonderful friends and ?the tree was happy.? When the boy was a teenager the tree was loney. The boy only came to her to carve intials of his love in her. When the boy became a man he complained to the tree that he was too old to play and needed money. So the tree offered him her apples, then her branches to build a house, and finally her trunk for a boat. ??And the tree was happy.? The boy didn?t visit the tree again until he was a very old man and the tree sadly replied, ?I have nothing else to give.? And the tree was then able to offer the old man one final gift: a stump to rest on.
This story reminds readers that even though our natural resources may be there for us to use we should not take advantage of them. This book was written in the early 1960?s when society was just beginning to acknowledge such environmental issues as the necessity for conservation. This book offers young children a poignant introduction for any science or geography unit exploring the different uses of our trees and other natural resources. I also highly recommend this book for a class reading on Earth Day along with planting new tree.
The book is illustrated by simple, innocent sketches relating the action for each page. This make the book successfully void of any racism issues connected to the boy. The boy is simply any child of any race or color. There are also no issues of sexism in the book because it deals only with the relationship of the boy to the tree, and there are no other characters. The issue of sexism requires negative attitudes from one human to another. Though, the tree is referred to as ?her? representative of Mother Nature. It is worthy to consider in a classroom of young students whether this is still a valid perspective by society. The book does not indicate specifically whether the boy belongs to any particular social class. Once again, he can be representative for all of us. However, when the boy is an adult he tells the tree he
needs money. I do not agree that this indicates a message that any one class is more responsible for hurting the environment. Most children won?t even realize this detail of the book. This book is better because it is a simplified message that touches our emotions to appreciate and care for our nature.
