Your Goal Today: Analysis of The Giving Tree using the different Literary Criticism perspectives In literary analysis, we can use different lenses to make meaning out of a text.

Lenses of Criticism  Historical Criticism  Archetypal Criticism  Gender (Feminist) Criticism  Marxist Criticism  Eco-Criticism  Reader Response Criticism

Archetypal Criticism Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works, that a text's meaning is shaped by cultural and psychological myths. Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or solidified in recurring images, symbols, or patterns. Most of you did this in your fairy tale analysis.

Archetypal Criticism These patterns may include motifs such as the quest or the heavenly ascent, recognizable character types such as the hero or the tragic hero, symbols such as the apple or snake, or images such as crucifixion. In other words, you simply talk about the patterns (archetypes). Similar to the chart you completed yesterday.

Historical Criticism Historical Criticism insists that to understand a literary piece, we need to understand the author's biography and social background, ideas circulating at the time, and the cultural environment.

Historical Criticism New Historicism seeks to find meaning in a text by considering the text within the framework of the prevailing ideas and assumptions of its historical era. This is what your will be doing in your research paper as you consider the impact of history on your philosopher. New Historicists concern themselves with the political function of literature and with the concept of power, the intricate means by which cultures produce and reproduce themselves.

Gender Critical Perspective Feminist Lens Gender interpretation focuses on relationships between genders, including patterns of thought, behavior, and power in relations between and within the sexes. For example, a gender reading of Cinderella may take into account the idea of power relationships between the men and women of the novel. Most of you did this in your analysis of a fairy tale.

Eco-criticism is a form of criticism based on an ecological perspective. Eco-criticism investigates the relationship between humans and the natural world in literature, including how individuals in society behave and react in relation to the nature. Many of you did this in your creation myth analysis. Eco-Criticism

Marxist Criticism Marxist criticism asserts that economics provides the foundation for all social, political, and ideological reality. Examining social groups and their influences is one of the most accessible ways to use Marxist criticism. ( the Haves vs. Have-nots) A Marxist lens would be helpful in many of your fairy tales as well.

STORY TIME The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Literary Criticism Circles  Meet in groups of four.  Review the criticism your group has been given. Solidify your understanding of the criticism.  Consider The Giving Tree, analyzing the text through the perspective of your criticism.  Write down at least five observations or conclusions that your group has made relative to your literary criticism perspective.  On the paper provided, record your group’s observations.

Journal  Which school of criticism interests you the most?   Write a short personal reflection about how the criticism affected your interpretation of the story.  Which school of criticism did you find most applicable to The Giving Tree?

The Giving Tree – Gender Criticism The female tree can be interpreted as Mother Earth, or simply a mother, sustaining the dominant male first with enjoyment and food, and later with the means to provide shelter and transportation. The mother figure’s, or female’s, sole purpose is to support the male in his endeavors. Regardless of how they damage/impact her.

The Giving Tree – Marxist Criticism When the boy is young, he is content simply to play with the tree: climbing up her trunk, gathering her apples, and sleeping in her shade. However, as he grows older, he becomes increasingly demanding of the tree’s resources. He is no longer content to enjoy the tree’s company, but rather he seeks the tree for financial and materialistic gain.

The Giving Tree – Eco-Criticism Man is dependent on nature for survival: the man systematically destroys the tree in order to get what he wants in order to be happy. The has power/ dominion over nature and ultimately, he destroys her.

The Giving Tree – Archetypal Criticism The tree—with her branches, her trunk, and her apples—is the giver of life, reiterating the archetype of nature as provider for man. Nature is the Good Mother.