Once there was a tree...

and she loved a little boy.

and he would gather her leaves

And the tree was happy. The End

Spitz’s Interpretation of The Giving Tree Presents troubling view of both mother and child through a nonreciprocal relationship Visual minimalism – repetition and reiteration create an aura of myth

Boy –Growing; demanding, insatiable and self-centered –Denies the independent existence of the tree (symbolically his mother) Tree –Gendered (Female) –Always agrees to the boy’s demands –Remains happy despite her being continually depleted by the boy –Alone solely when boy is away Child’s early fantasy of being sole object of mother’s love Presupposes eternal, all-encompassing symbiosis between mother and child. Static relationship –Despite growing, the boy is still referred to by the tree as a boy The Mother-Son Relationship in The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree’s Example for Children nonreciprocal view of human relationships across genders and generations Giving Tree- child treats his mother as if he were indeed still an infant his mother takes part in her child’s fantasy through self-sacrifice and giving in to his every demand enjoys depleting self in order to please her child

Why Do we Enjoy The Giving Tree ? Kindness, generosity of spirit, glorification of self sacrifice Spitz cannot accept this viewpoint- sees it solely as: “a mother who is lonely but happy, a mother who never protests; a mother who is, by the end of the book, reduced to a dead stump” (144).

The tree is only happy when the boy happens to appear, and remains happy until he is gone, The boy never sees when the tree is unhappy. The boy NEVER admits his happiness because of the tree, and only admits his love for her when he is a small child. As the pictures of the tree progresses, the trunk becomes more frail, just as a human becomes more frail over time. The aging process is represented not only in the boy, but also in the tree before she is cut down. –Seen in the trunk (becomes wrinkled on the edges) –Seen in the position of trunk (becomes more slumped over) Additional Notes

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