Loved the book as a kid. Read it as an adult when my first kid was about 2 years old, and was horrified. Totally anthropomorphised the tree as a mother. But my DD loved it, and kept asking for it, so I kept reading it, and searching for new meanings/interpretations. Finally landed on one that's pretty simple: The Giving Tree is always happy. The man is never happy. It feels good to give and share with the people we love. If the man had shared too, instead of always taking, he would've been happier!

The tree is gendered, folks. It's not just about a tree/parent, it's female. And the kid/taker is male. BIG problem.

Anonymous wrote:Lol - everyone's interpretation of Love You Forever is cracking me up. I never thought about it as creepy - I won't read it to my kids because I am in tears with in 3 pages. I tried once - it was a shitshow. My mom gave it to me for Christmas one year - another sob fest.

+1 on the Rainbow Fish - hey fish, go be like everyone else and buy your friends, you little asshole.

Ahhh! Lol! Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:it's a Christian allegory. God is the martyr-parent. Boy is sinner/prodigal son/humanity.

I loved this book as a little girl and actually became very enamoured of this book again when I was a teenager, wrote some papers on it, and so on. It seems sadder to me reading it again as an adult. but hell, so does the Bible.

but I Love You Forever IS TOTALLY CREEPY.

You think Shel Silverstein wrote the book as a Christian allegory?

I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we have all been the "tree" and "boy" at different points in our lives/ and in different family relationships. We have been takers and we have been givers. I think that is why the book hurts and is so poignant for most people. As a giver, the book hurts as the boy takes advantage of the tree's generosity and the tree's lack of boundaries. As a taker, this book is very haunting as it makes us reflect on our own selfishness.

Maybe branch out to other shel silverstien's poetry books and he will shift interest?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try reading "The missing piece meets the big O". That shit will blow your mind.

Agree.

That is one of the best books EVER!

That book totally changed how I dated in my 20's!! I wish my parents had read it to me when I was a kid!

Lol - everyone's interpretation of Love You Forever is cracking me up. I never thought about it as creepy - I won't read it to my kids because I am in tears with in 3 pages. I tried once - it was a shitshow. My mom gave it to me for Christmas one year - another sob fest.

+1 on the Rainbow Fish - hey fish, go be like everyone else and buy your friends, you little asshole.

I have always loved the giving tree. No kids book can like, summarize a complex concept in its entirety. I always thought of the giving tree as a book about a very specific aspect of the parent/child relationship in that the tree was rock of reliability for the boy. He could always count on the tree to be there no matter what had happened in the past. I think we all hope to give that inherent sense of reliability to our kids. My parents were not particularly reliable and so I always looked at the giving tree as a kind of ideal. Obviously you grow up and realize your parents are people who are imperfect and what not but in an ideal world, you'd still be able to count on their help and council in times of need.

So interesting how many people read it differently, I think how you feel about it must have something to do with your own parents in some way!

I can't read "Love You Forever" without crying. PP was right in that the author wrote it after having gone through two losses. Having gone through the same thing I don't find the book creepy, it's sad.

I've always hated the Giving Tree.

Things I learned from this thread:
(1) I would read the hell out "The Taking Stream"
(2) I am never reading "Love you forever" or "rainbow fish"
(3) Ryan Gosling kicks ass.
(4) some of you PP's are my kindred spirits in twisted humor.

^^ I returned to it- I meant he returned to it above. Perhaps, the book makes me subconsciously examine my own relationships.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had to hide this book from my kids because I would sob in the bathroom every damn time after reading it.

The old tree giving selflessly, the man coming back to die, I can't even. It kills me.

Me too. My 6 year old would choose it on purpose because he thought it was so ridiculous that I would cry over it.

My son always chose that book too as a child. I think it was mostly because of the reaction that it brought out of me. It ALWAYS made me cry.

I interpreted the story as follows: In the beginning, the boy and the tree had a symbiotic relationship as they both enjoyed each others' company. As the boy aged, he was only interested in tree to the extent that it could give him something materialistically and in the process destroyed the tree. I'm an optimist so I believe that the boy when he was very old realized how good the tree had been to him and that was why I returned to it.


Thanks for making me cry this morning.

I have a bit of a different angle on the giving tree, as someone who had a mentally ill dad. He loved me, but not in a way that meant anything to a kid, and I only intellectually understand it as an adult. My childhood experience was that I didn't get what I needed from him, and that was the case until he died. a parent can love a kid, but if it's in a way the kid can't comprehend, it might as well not exist from the kid's POV.

In the Giving Tree, the tree is always able to give the child/man what he needs, when he needs it. The kid's needs and the tree's abilities to meet them are matched. It is the most effective kind of love, of the kind parents like my dad aren't able to give.

also I think I read on here that I Will Love You Forever is written by people whose kid had died? puts another spin on it in that case, for me.

Anonymous wrote:Try reading "The missing piece meets the big O". That shit will blow your mind.

I had never heard off so I searched for it. This one is brilliant. I am ordering it today. What a perfect way to describe love to kids or adults for that matter, rather than the princess waiting for her prince!