Once there was a tree. . .

and

she loved

a

little boy.

and

he

would

gather

her

leaves

And the tree was happy.

The End

Spitz’s Interpretation of The Giving Tree

• Presents troubling view of both mother and child through a nonreciprocal relationship

• Visual minimalism– repetition and reiteration create an aura of

myth

• Boy – Growing; demanding, insatiable and self-centered– Denies the independent existence of the tree (symbolically his mother)

• Tree– Gendered (Female)– Always agrees to the boy’s demands – Remains happy despite her being continually depleted by the boy– Alone solely when boy is away

• Child’s early fantasy of being sole object of mother’s love

• Presupposes eternal, all-encompassing symbiosis between mother and child.

• Static relationship– Despite growing, the boy is still referred to by the tree as a boy

The Mother-Son Relationship in The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree’s Example for Children

• nonreciprocal view of human relationships across genders and generations

• Giving Tree- child treats his mother as if he were indeed still an infant

• his mother takes part in her child’s fantasy through self-sacrifice and giving in to his every demand

• enjoys depleting self in order to please her child

Why Do we Enjoy The Giving Tree?

• Kindness, generosity of spirit, glorification of self sacrifice

• Spitz cannot accept this viewpoint- sees it solely as: “a mother who is lonely but happy, a mother who never protests; a mother who is, by the end of the book, reduced to a dead stump” (144).

• The tree is only happy when the boy happens to appear, and remains happy until he is gone, The boy never sees when the tree is unhappy.

• The boy NEVER admits his happiness because of the tree, and only admits his love for her when he is a small child.

• As the pictures of the tree progresses, the trunk becomes more frail, just as a human becomes more frail over time. The aging process is represented not only in the boy, but also in the tree before she is cut down. – Seen in the trunk (becomes wrinkled on the edges)– Seen in the position of trunk (becomes more slumped over)

Additional Notes

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