He may, however, gather her branches to build a house. He asks the tree for a house, but the tree replies sadly that she has no house to give. The boy tells the tree he wants a wife and child, and a house for them. This time the boy claims he is “too busy” to play the implication is that he has become an adult. When he reappears, the tree is overjoyed, enthusiastically asking the boy, as before, to come and play in her branches. The boy is gone for another long period, and the tree becomes sad once again. The boy does so, and the tree is, for a time, happy.
That will earn him the money he says he needs to have fun. The boy says that he is “too big” to climb and play, and wants instead “to buy things.” The tree laments that she has no money to give the boy, but suggests he take her apples and sell them in the city. One day, the boy arrives after a long absence, and the tree entreats him to play in her boughs like he used to. As the boy grows older, he stays away for longer periods. This is the only time in the story where the boy and tree see each other regularly. When the boy is young, he likes to play in the tree, gather her apples, and sleep in her shade. All of the emphasis is on the two characters and their relationship. These facts may seem obvious because the book is so familiar, but they are worth noting: the contextless vacuum in which the tree and boy interact contains no unnecessary details. Neither the tree nor the boy is named, and the story is not located in any particular place. The Giving Tree begins by introducing the tree and the little boy she loves. In this reading, the boy represents the destructive selfishness of humanity towards the natural world. It has also been criticized on environmental grounds as being anthropocentric: the little boy never hesitates to demand more and more from the tree, which he sees only in terms of the material goods she can give him. It was, for instance, banned from one public library in Colorado on the grounds that it was sexist: the tree in the story is described as “she,” and the child to which she selflessly and unthinkingly gives herself, as a “he.” Thus, it was argued that the story portrayed female exploitation.
Besides being one of the best known and loved of Silverstein's stories, The Giving Tree is also one of the most controversial.
The book is quite spare of text, and as with many children's books, its (equally minimal) illustrations are essential to the progression of the story. The Giving Tree is a famous children's story written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein.
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