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Summary: To call this book REPUGNANT would be an understatement
Review: If your aim is to mold a small, impressionable child into a self-absorbed narcissist, then this is certainly the book you've been seeking. The story illustrates how it's perfectly acceptable to be completely selfish and to exploit those who love you. As Gordon Gecko said, "Greed is good!"Lesson 1 - How Life Works: You are free to take all that other people may be willing to give to you out of their own unselfish love for you. If someone is willing to make sacifices because he/she loves you, just use it to your advantage; there is no price for you to pay. In fact, not only can you get away with taking anything-and-everything your little heart desires from those who love you, but afterwards you are free to simply abandon them without explanation. Even then, if you should ever think of something *else* you'd like to have that they might be able to help you acquire, just swing by for a quick visit and ask them for it; it'll be perfectly okay. Trust me, they'll be thrilled that you merely dropped by. Lesson 2 - Giving Back: You need give nothing in return, because it's YOUR happiness that's paramount to all. When someone who loves you is sad or lonely or in need, that does not matter; the only thing that matters in life is your happiness. Just ignore others' troubles, even when you are (and i use this deliciously ironic word intentionally) responsible. Instead, focus solely on having fun and indulging your whims at the expense of those who love you. The Cherry On Top: No matter how badly you may have treated them, no matter how ruthlessly you may have exploited them, no matter how cruelly you may have neglected them, the people who love you will ALWAYS love you. No matter what, they will always be happy to see you again, to be near you once more, to indulge you, to comfort you, to shower you with unconditional love. Here endeth the lessons.
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Summary: I Love this Book!
Review: i am 21, and this book is still one of my favorites! A true classic and a gem!
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Summary: What a sick little book!
Review: It depicts a tree as a sentient life form that gets cut down for the profit of an evil (capitalist) little boy that forgot the simple pleasures playing in the trees branches. Yuck! Someone gave this to our 3 year old and I disposed of the book before finishing the story. I have half a mind to write a story about a giving tree. Something about trees are not sentient and have no souls and reveal their true beauty when they get cut down and made into something useful.
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Summary: Every relationship is give and take.
Review: This story is very similar to what happens in many lives. Every relationship whether t be a romance or friendship is give and take. Very few relationships are split equally in that there is an equal amount of giving and taking. In The Giving Tree, the tree is the giver and the person, the constant taker.
I think that Silverstein is trying to present a moral, (as he does in much of his work), of the story that one can not always only take. One must give also. By the time the man was old, there was nothing more the dear old tree could give.
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Summary: Suprised Me!
Review: I was introduced to this book by a good friend! I brush him off when he ask me to read book for pre-schooler! Neverthless i read the book and i was so touched that i cried! It is such a simple book but it really means a lot, it really teach me to look at life with a different prespective. To date i have already bought 4 copies of this book and give it to friends that i really care and love.Go ahead and fall in love with this simple but meaningful book!
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Summary: EXTREMELY TOUCHING-MY FAVORITE STORY
Review: THIS IS AN AMAZING BOOK-DON'T PASS THIS ONE UP, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
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Summary: Huh?
Review: What is all this Christ stuff that people keep putting in their reviews of this book? Yeah, I suppose the book could be viewed as an allegory, but I think that's stretching it. This book is about taking advantage of and cruelly neglecting the one thing that sustains you and unconditionally loves you. It isn't a delightful tale, and it sure didn't warm the cockles of my heart. The Giving Tree is depressing and shows a parasitic relationship at its worst.
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Summary: Young vs Old
Review: This is an excellent book, and interestingly enough the cause of much debate for such a simple, yet profound little book. It's interesting to note, that many people who have given this book a negative review, loved it - as little boys and girls. However, now, as grown up 'adults' - they have revised their opinions. If only they could go back to the days of swinging in trees... and be happy - perhaps they would retain the less cynical and youthful viewpoint now seemingly forgotten as timed passed by.
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Summary: An Excellent Book, Worthwhile for Children and Adults
Review: I can remember very distinctly when my grandmother first read me "The Giving Tree," and for nearly a decade afterwards, I, and then my younger sister, would ask to have it read everytime we went in to visit her. Now, almost fifteen years later, I find myself a freshman at Harvard, staring at the books that I find the most significant, fitted snugly between two bookends on my desk. Nestled in between "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" and the rightmost statuette of one of the lions from the New York Public Library rests my grandmother's worn copy of "The Giving Tree," given to me as a going away present. The story is incomparable. It is a tale of unquestioning love and devotion with agapic roots tracing back to the new testament and to ancient Greece. The ideal of sacrifice is ubiquitously honored among the worlds religions: Bhadisatvas sacrifice enlightenment to lead others to Nirvana, Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son to God, Jesus sacrificed himself for mankind, Jihad is a sacrifice of self for Allah. The tree is entirely self-sacrificial, and thus noble. The boy, by comparison, is no more selfish than any ordinary person, and he is himself ennobled by an innocence that he carries with him throughout the story. He never thinks of the tree, which can be taken to mean "he thinks only of himself," or, "even as a middle aged man, he is too innocent to understand the suffering of others." In reality, however, these are not different interpretations. His innocence leads him to think only of himself, because he is not quite able to understand others. But that is human nature: man is not capable of truly understanding the suffering of another person. It is only the tree, who through her devotion to the little boy, is able to appreciate his suffering. By loving the boy, she is able to overcome her own suffering and understand that of the boy. In the end, the boy returns, and sits on her stump. This simple act of togetherness more than compensates the tree for all she has given. "The Giving Tree" is a charming story of human innocence, and agapic love. Certainly idealistic, it is possibly the most beautiful example of the romantic tragedy. I can imagine nothing nobler than to give of myself as fully and as selflessly as the tree gives of herself in this book. Moreover, I believe that anyone who reads this book can see him or herself in the character of the boy, and will find someone in his or her life who plays the role of the tree. The simplicity and wide accessibility of this story strengthens it, and makes the reader appreciate his or her own giving trees. When my grandmother used to finish reading the story, I would always feel a pressing need to thank her, less for having spent fifteen minutes with me on her lap, than simply for loving me.
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Summary: Book evokes emotion in young and old
Review: I agree with a lot of the "interpretations " of this story:
but in essence, is not a good book, story, or movie one that makes you think, analyze and surmise? That moves you in a way to keep dwelling on it?
This book made me cry when I read it, and of course later you peel away the layers of the onion to compare it to human relationships: but for it do this it has to be an EXCELLENT story, whether you like the gist of the tale or not. I loved it.
Thank you Shel!
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