The Giving Tree
Earlier this evening, my boyfriend (who is close to finishing his last quarter of graduate school) mentioned that he felt like the old man pictured on the last page of The Giving Tree. Not being able to recall this book from my childhood, I went ahead an looked up the Wikipedia article. The plot description nearly brought me to tears. Watching the following video all but pushed me over the edge:
In fact, I could only watch portions of it because seeing the story unfold through animation was just so depressing.
I suppose what saddened me most about this story were the sacrifices made by both the tree and the boy. In order to make the boy happy, the tree gradually allowed parts of her to be removed to be sold or constructed into a house and boat. The tree gave freely, while the boy simply took and took in return. Ultimately, only the tree's stump was left.
The boy, on the other hand, sacrificed his carefree childhood spent with the tree to fulfill "adult" tasks such as …
In fact, I could only watch portions of it because seeing the story unfold through animation was just so depressing.
I suppose what saddened me most about this story were the sacrifices made by both the tree and the boy. In order to make the boy happy, the tree gradually allowed parts of her to be removed to be sold or constructed into a house and boat. The tree gave freely, while the boy simply took and took in return. Ultimately, only the tree's stump was left.
The boy, on the other hand, sacrificed his carefree childhood spent with the tree to fulfill "adult" tasks such as …