Take your own interpretation

Author's Rating:

Pros: Simple story and illustrations

Cons: If taken at face value, the story can be pretty sad.

Author's Review
Many people may find this hard to believe, but I performed as a mime when I was in college. White face, red lips, black shirt, white pants. Yep. That was my creative outlet back then. Once or twice a week, I would clear some room on my busy schedule and get together with other similarly minded people and practice, practice, practice. Then, on Sundays, we would go out to perform.

Actually, the work that we did wasn’t mime in the pure sense of the word. It was actually pantomime. One person (not dressed as a mime) would read a story and the rest of the troupe would act it out. It was really fun and rather like being 6 years old again. "Let’s pretend..."

This was where I had my first exposure to Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, a story that shows the relationship between a boy and a tree. Through the years, the boy takes and takes and takes from the tree without ever giving anything back. No matter how much the boy neglects and abuses the tree, the tree is still there, loving and supporting him. At first glance, the story seemed pretty odd. Why would anyone be happy to take such abuse from such a selfish person?

Some years before my involvement with the troupe, one of the prior members had adapted the book to a skit. One member was the boy. One to three other members would be the tree. Playing the part of a tree was much more difficult than what one might expect. Try standing in one place with your arms stuck up in the air for most of the first half of The Giving Tree. Then try showing the tree’s emotions without using your hands. Then try being the tree as it is cut down, falling straight back, hoping all the while that those behind you are sure-handed enough to catch you and strong enough to carry you away.

So why would we want to do a difficult and possibly dangerous play based on an apparently warped story? I guess I forgot to mention why the mime troupe got together in the first place. The troupe’s primary purpose was to spread the word of God, and we primarily performed in churches and to youth groups throughout Ohio. The person who adapted The Giving Tree likened the tree to God, always there, always patiently waiting for those He loves to come back and receive His comfort. I really liked that interpretation, and I left college with an appreciation for the book.

Since then, I have learned much more about The Giving Tree and its author. By the time The Giving Tree was published in 1964, Shel Silverstein had a regular cartoonist in Playboy for eight years. He only began writing children’s books when Ursula Nordstrom (who also “discovered’ Maurice Sendak) suggested that Silverstein apply his talents to children’s books. When William Cole, the publisher, first saw The Giving Tree, he did not feel it was marketable because it was too simple for adults and too sad for kids. It had a small first printing. Mothers who saw the story as an allegory for a mother’s love saw the book and fell in love with it. The rest is history. According to Amazon.com, the book has sold over 18 million copies in hardcover and has been translated into 20 different languages. (That’s a good lesson for budding writers… publishers aren’t always right about what will sell!)

I now read The Giving Tree with my daughter, who enjoys the simple drawings and easy words. My daughter has her own interpretation of the story. She doesn’t think that the story is sad at all. Rather, she finds great comfort in the story. Sometimes in life, she will be like the boy. In those times, she will know that those who love her will continue to do so, even if she behaves badly. Sometimes in life, she will be the tree. In those times, she will need to support others, even if they do things that hurt her. I like that interpretation too.

I guess this is the beauty of The Giving Tree. It’s simple enough that a person can make different interpretations of the meaning behind the book. A person may choose to take the story literally. If so, the reader will probably think that the story is sad and neurotic. Or the reader may choose to learn different lessons from it. In that case, the reader will love the book.