If someone asks me about a work that impressed me the most, I will say “The giving

tree” written by Shel Silverstein. “The giving tree” is a story about a boy and a tree which
brings me a feeling that there is a relationship between a mom and her son because the
tree is always willing to give everything she has to the boy without any reason. I seemed
to live in this work when I was reading it. This poem contains many morals that make me
think a lot.

At first, I really hate the boy who always wants to get without giving. At the same time, I
am sure that a great number of people who had read this work would strongly criticize
him as well. Everyone can see that he is obviously selfish when he only comes to the tree
whenever he needs her. He takes everything from her and obviously, he just wants to get
but sharing. He even does not care about her feeling and he hurts her. However, this is
our feeling when we only focus on the boy and see his bad. I am wondering if all the
faults are from the boy or the tree also needs to realize her mistakes.

I can see that the tree which represents parents who consider their children as her world.
It means they love their descendant unconditionally. Nevertheless, this is also the factor
that hurt the parents if their children break their heart. They may feel that the bottom
dropped out of her world. Additionally, I can easily realize that it is a one-sided
relationship when only the tree is ready to give the boy everything and always be there to
wait for him. However, the fact that the boy never visits the tree if he does not need her.
Eventually, we can see no one can be happy in the end. In addition, the parents’ love also
pressures the children. The reason for this fact is the children tend to make a great effort
to do everything as well as possible since they want to meet the parents’ expectations,
they do not want their parents to be disappointed. Little by little the child will be
exhausted. Unfortunately, we can not guess what they would do to escape themselves
from living for others. They may damage their life; they will not want to do anything
after a long time they try their best to do everything. Then, we can not criticize them
when they return home and ask for their parents’ help because it is actually natural in
society. Dealing with this matter, in my view, the tree in the story or the parents in the
reality should live for themselves when the children grew up. They need to admit that
their children also have their own life, and they would leave the family when they are
mature enough. They can not be with their parents for their whole life. This thought will
help them to avoid the hurt when the children do not spend all of their time with them and
do not care about them as much as before. In addition, they do not have to sacrifice
everything for the children when they had already given all the best things for the
children when they were little. Moreover, to help them satisfied with their life, parents
also should give the children chances to live on their own, to make their own decisions, to
do what they love. That is how to help the children in their life.

In conclusion, this is a story with many profound meanings. However, I extremely love
the way that Silverstein uses metaphor to deliver the message of the poem. As I have
mentioned above, although it is really essential to share the love to family, but we also
need to know how to love correctly. Parents love their children, but they should love
themselves as well, do not let everyone hurt themselves just because we see them as our
world. Furthermore, parents love and expect their children to have a good life but they
need to respect their choices and let them do what they want as well as take responsibility
for what they do.