The Giving Tree: Difference between revisions

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{{tropelist}}

=== If read as a metaphor this work provides examples of ===
=== If read as a metaphor ===

* [[Happiness in Slavery]]
* [[Happiness in Slavery]]
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: The Giving Tree, of course.
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: The Giving Tree, of course.
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* [[Rule of Symbolism]]: Things like the tree being able to talk as well as being alive even after being cut down are easy to [[Hand Wave]] if you take this story as an allegory.
* [[Rule of Symbolism]]: Things like the tree being able to talk as well as being alive even after being cut down are easy to [[Hand Wave]] if you take this story as an allegory.


=== If read without metaphor this work provides examples of: ===
=== If read literally ===

* [[Axe Crazy]]: The boy.
* [[Axe Crazy]]: The boy.
* [[Just Eat Gilligan]]: Why don't you just get a friend that doesn't want to kill you, Giving Tree? Why don't you cut down a tree who ''can't'' talk, or at least one that's not your friend, little boy? This is spoofed hilariously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQavD9mSIc here].
* [[Just Eat Gilligan]]: Why don't you just get a friend that doesn't want to kill you, Giving Tree? Why don't you cut down a tree who ''can't'' talk, or at least one that's not your friend, little boy? This is spoofed hilariously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQavD9mSIc here].
* [[Karma Houdini]] The brat..er [[Last Second Word Swap|kid]]
* [[Karma Houdini]] The brat..er [[Last-Second Word Swap|kid]]
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Every time the boy takes wood from the Giving Tree.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Every time the boy takes wood from the Giving Tree.
* [[Plant Person]]
* [[Plant Person]]
* [[What Measure Is a Non Human]]: If the tree was a human woman this story wouldn't have worked. After all, [[Axe Crazy|dismembering your mother]] and making her into gristly flesh contraptions tends to make you cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]] rather quickly... [[Squick|even if she says]] [[Too Kinky to Torture|go ahead]].
* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: If the tree was a human woman this story wouldn't have worked. After all, [[Axe Crazy|dismembering your mother]] and making her into gristly flesh contraptions tends to make you cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]] rather quickly... [[Squick|even if she says]] [[Too Kinky to Torture|go ahead]].


=== Read either way this work is an example of: ===
=== Read either way this work is an example of: ===
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{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Childrens Literature]]
[[Category:Children's Literature]]
[[Category:The Giving Tree]]
[[Category:The Giving Tree]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Literature]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giving Tree, The}}

Latest revision as of 12:26, 4 May 2017

Don't do it, Giving Tree!
"Once there was a tree... and she loved a little boy."
—Shel Silverstein

A selfless tree falls in love with a boy and sacrifices everything she has to make the boy happy.

One of Shel Silverstein's best known works from an anthology of stories from a book of the same name. It is widely believed to be a metaphor for human, and especially parent-child, relationships.

This story is absolutely made of Applicability and even young children at barely the required reading level can recognize this. In fact, if read without regards to the symbolism, the story is disturbingly laden with Fridge Logic and Fridge Horror. For this reason the examples are split into three sections.

Tropes used in The Giving Tree include:

If read as a metaphor

If read literally

Read either way this work is an example of:

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