Korean Job Discussion Forums

[illvibetip]

When I was a child, I read Aesops fables and even books like Winnie the pooh! These books taught me a lot of valuable lessons about the world we live in.
I�m sure we all have our favourites.

Im teaching a book at the moment that is supplied by the hogwan to my elementary school kids. Heres an overview of it;

Boy grows up with tree and plays with it all the time. Boy loves tree � tree happy loves boy too
Tree gives leaves to play with � boy happy � tree happy.
Boy gets older and needs money � tree gives man fruit � man happy � tree happy.
Man doesn�t come back for years. Tree sad.
Man needs home � tree gives branches/trunk. Man happy � tree happy.
30 years later old man comes back. Tree has nothing left to give so man sits on the stump.
Tree very happy.

I was just wondering what kind of a message this gives kids?
I asked my students what they thought of the story and if they think the tree is happy. One of them very astutely said ��No, the man is killing the tree!�.

There�s hope yet�

[DorkothyParker]

JP Metz ( <3 ) reviewed that on her Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns75th8cY9Y

I am incapable of saying anything cross about Shel Silverstein, however.

[illvibetip]

[mellow-d]

I think it's about unconditional love by a parental figure to a child(the boy). Even though the boy was selfish, the tree was always there for him. I really like this book; it's touching but a little sad.

[illvibetip]

but the tree is killed half way through? thats the bit i dont get.

the book i was given is very simplified version of what you may have read when you were a kid.

This is what i understood from it.
Its ok to kill trees - they are there for us and whatever we do to nature, it doesnt matter because nature is our servant anyway. If you cut it down to build a house (when you could have used bricks or re-planted in its place), nature will be happy.
If it is a parent (in the original), why does he have to kill it? He killed it a long time before he came back, it didnt die on its own, if he hadnt killed it - it would have lived on long after him and fed other people too. The boy doesnt seem selfish, just ignorant of what hes doing probably because no one ever told him what he was doing was wrong. The tree didnt help either by smiling everytime he took a bit. Even when he was an old man, it still didnt say 'he look, theres something ive been meaning to say to you for a while now, do you remember when you were younger...etc). Thats bad parenting that is.

Im sure im completely missing the metaphor of this book. Becasue it is so simplified, it really does look like a very anti-environment book. Im pretty sure the 7 year olds im teaching it to, think so too.

was this written int he 60's by any chance?

who is this Shel Silverstein anyway that writes books about trees?

and what is the moral of the story?

which ever way you look at it, Im not sure its a good message for young children.

(thanks for the link by the way anonymous - ill read it later tonight)_

[DorkothyParker]

It was written in the 60's, in fact!

You don't know Shel Silverstein? I'm sure you read a poem or two as a kid. Where the Sidewalk Ends is a classic! (The others are as well, but this is the one I remember from my childhood.)

The tree is maybe a bit of a poor parent and the boy is rather selfish, but both sides are just part of human nature. We are givers and we are takers and that is that.

There is no moral, there is just life.

Here are some poems. I couldn't find a lot what with copyright laws and all:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/shel_silverstein/poems

[illvibetip]

no, im from the uk. We never read him at school.

I just wikied him though - colourful career! he has gone right up in my estimation for being the writer of a 'boy named sue' amongst other things.

It also seems that the story has been quite controversial for some time amongst literary critics. You must have heard all of this before if its been going on a while?

thanks for the link, itll give it some reading tomorrow.

[cragesmure]

Wow, that's a story I heard as a kid, but have never really thought about the meaning (just like that nursery rhyme about a kid in a bed in a tree. Something about a wind blowing and the child (presumably) falling to its ultimate demise). Nice one for bringing it up - I haven't thought about it for years.
BTW - What did you learn from the Poohster? How to forget your pants?

[Steelrails]

Caveat- I only have the very simplified synopsis to go off of in analyzing this story

Well when I read the story I read it in the context of a familiar friend (the tree to the man) fulfilling its "purpose" by offering what it has to the man.

It also suggests that the greatest pleasure in life comes not from receiving (see how the man is constantly dealing with problems despite always 'gaining') but comes from giving.

Also it should be noted that it's always the tree giving, not the man taking.

One could also look at it as part of the cycle of life and that no matter what there is always something we have to offer and give.

In our youth we are friends. In our energetic years we bear fruit. In our middle aged years we sacrifice and offer ourselves. In our final years we offer support and all that we have left.

[Bloopity Bloop]

[Steelrails]

Also, since this is probably based of a folk tale, there is a chance it is a Christian parable.

Note Christianity here is being talked about in terms of literary symbolism and analysis, not in terms of religion.

The terms "bearing fruit" and "tree" are familiar to those of a Christian background.

In man's early time, or our childhood, we are innocent and friendly towards "The Tree" (Christ/The Garden?). God/Christ gives man/us bountiful gifts/manna & quail. Or it could refer to Christ in his early days.

However man forsakes God/Christ. Expulsion from Garden/Prodigal Son.

Man returns, Father welcomes him home. Tree gives branches could mean God giving his son or Christ giving himself.

Man returns again and sits on the stump (the Holy Spirit?) Or builds his foundation upon the stump of "The Tree".

[illvibetip]

the religious slant seems to make more sense. Because if a stump is a metaphor for support, it still wouldnt explain how in death - you can give actual support. However, in a spiritual sense you could.
The problem I have with this story is that it doesnt suggest 'circle' wether it is nature (tree regrowing from a seed) or from a humanistic point of view. He takes so much that the circle is broken and both die.

The tree wasnt necessarily in its later years either - apple trees can live up to 250 years old and still bear fruit. The tree was killed prematurely.
Im sorry if Im picking apart something that you all grew up with and loved.

By the way, you can learn a lot from winnie the pooh. Each character is a part of the human personality etc.

[Steelrails]

[conrad2]

The Giving Tree is not about the environment. And OP, Humpty Dumpty is not about making omelettes.