The Giving of a Tree

The Giving Tree is a children’s picture book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. First published in 1964 by Harper & Row. It has become one of Silverstein’s best known titles and has been translated into numerous languages. Despite the recognition that the book has received, it has been described as “one of the most divisive books in children’s literature.”

I remember reading this book as a child. I did not quite understand why the tree was always so happy. It was explained to me in many ways by many adults through the ages and even into my adult life now, and do you know what I think? Well… let’s describe what the book was about, first.

The Giving Tree 

Recap of the original story by Kathleen J. Shields

The tree loved this boy.
And the boy loved the tree.
He carved his initials into her trunk.
He played hide and seek with her.
She gave him apples to eat.
A trunk to climb and branches to hang from.
She gave him shade for the boy to sleep under.
But then the boy grew up.
He took her apples to sell for money.
Then he took her branches to make a home. Like that would have been enough to build a home….

Then he cut down her trunk to make a boat so he could sail away… leaving everything behind…

She had nothing left but a stump.
A stump with his initials… But she was supposedly happy.

So when the boy came back, years later, old and tired, all she could offer him was a place to sit.
So he sat on her.
And apparently all of this giving and sacrifice made the tree happy. The End?

Throughout the process of this story, the boy grew up.
He became an adult. Had a family. And grew old.
Time passed.
A lot of time.

But what if a side story had been occurring just off of the illustrated page?
What if, as a young boy, after eating her apples, he planted the seeds?

The Giving of a Tree

The Giving of a Tree – My alternate ending.

While playing with one of the tree’s fallen sticks…
The boy dug a hole and planted his apple core.
He repeated this many times as he grew up.
As a teenager, when she gave him her apples to sell.
He was happy to see the young saplings he planted years earlier, starting to bear fruit.

Later on, his young children grew up eating the apples.
They played in an apple tree orchard.
Around trees that provided places for epic games of hide and seek.
Places to climb. To carve their initials in to their trunks.
The extra apples could have provided plenty of money.
The branches (that supposedly created a whole house) could have made many more houses for the older, now adult children.

The tree was happy.
Her saplings were happy.
The boy was happy. He was not alone!
His wife and children were happy.
The apple trees lived on.
The humans and subsequent generations continued on.
The story continues even into today.

And the world was better for it.

Not for the previous moral of giving and sacrifice on the side of the tree with the constant taking from the side of the boy…
But a mutual acceptance of a give and take from both sides.

This way the reader is left with a sense of hope and renewal. 
Showing the cycle of life and balance in relationships.
What a legacy the tree could have left with that boy!

Displaying a wonderful connection to nature, an understanding to give back to the Earth.
Presenting a hopeful message of love and kindness for all that lead to new opportunities and a brighter, more prosperous future.

Yet… the original story ended with a tree stump.
An alone old man, sitting on a stump, looking off into the distance as if it were all about to end.

And we wonder why the world is the way it is…

Kathleen J. Shields – 10/21/2024

*Personal Disclaimer: I personally, do not have a green thumb. I struggle to keep traditional houseplants alive. I have also read that growing an apple tree from a seed is difficult and everyone suggests purchasing an already viable sapling from a nursery to plant. If well taken care of, it would only take about 5 years to bear fruit, which is pretty amazing. But there was a time, not long ago, when growing any plant from a seed was, well, the only way to do this.

I remember watching the Johnny Appleseed cartoons. All he did was poke a hole, drop in a seed and cover it. Mother Nature took care of the rest. So that is where my story idea came from. Plant a seed. Then watch it grow. That’s also the moral of this story. Have a blessed day!