Eight Alternate Readings of "The Giving Tree"
The seminal classic is famously controversial. But here are some lesser known interpretations.
Shel Silverstein’s timeless children’s book “The Giving Tree” has received criticism from many angles. These range from interpreting the tree as a mother figure who annihilates herself in order to provide for her spoiled child to examining the boy as a government that practices an exploitative relationship with the environment. But Silverstein’s story of a boy and the tree that loves him has attracted attention from other schools of thought of well. Here are their readings:
Marxism: In the Marxist reading, the “Giving Tree” is a thinly veiled metaphor for capitalist society. Here, the “tree” is the proletariat that produces the means of civilization, and “the boy” represents the bourgeoisie who own the means of production and prey upon “the tree.”
Luddite: The Luddites believe the boy to be the face of automation and technology, continually stealing the labor of the tree to make inferior products.
Objectivism: Ayn Rand’s famous philosophical system elevates the boy as a heroic figure, hailing his subjugation of the altruistic tree in his determined pursuit of self-fulfillment.
Perfectionism: Perfectionism lauds the boy for finishing the job.
Fascism: Fascism views the boy as a weak and uncharismatic leader, who must ask his citizens for their permission to employ them to his ultimate ends.
Scientology: In the Scientologist reading, the book is a cautionary tale, with the tree as an attractive yet toxic SP (Suppressive Person) from whom the boy must continually distance himself if he is ever to go clear.
Anti-vaxxer: Anti-vaxxers view the boy as the government continually inserting its needles (saws) into our precious tree flesh. It’s not important that everyone is sick and dead at the end.
Sailing: In Sailing School, it is taught that the boy is a nice guy who likes to build his own boats and sail away in them.