2014.01.20 更新

The Giving Tree is a story by Shel Silverstein. It is a warm but a little down-heart story about a boy and a tree. Once there stands a tree. The tree loves the boy. Every day, she waits for the coming of the boy. When the boy is little, he plays around the tree, and he loves the tree, too. As time goes by, the boy is getting older, being busy with his own life and forgetting the tree that has accompanied him once.

When the boy comes to the tree poorly and tells his problems to the tree, the tree doesn’t have money but lets him sell her apples in the city. When the boy wants a house to keep himself warm, the tree lets him cut off her branches to build a house. When the boy says that he is too old to play, the tree let him cut down her trunk to make a boat so that the boy can sail away happily. Finally, the boy is so old that he can’t walk; the tree provides her stump to him to take a rest.

After I read this story, I am a little angry at the boy for twisting the tree around his little finger. I think he takes the tree’s giving for granted. But I admire the tree very much. The tree takes good care with the boy like his mother. She gives whatever the boy needs or wants. Her unselfish love touched me. Even though she has nothing, she is happy and feels satisfied as long as the boy is willing to look about her. What the tree only wants is that the boy gets happy. Just like every mother dedicates herself to her children without complaints. Even though the boy grows up and gets old, the tree still call him “boy” as the children is forever children in Mother’s mind.

This story is simple. There is no abstract glossary but it makes me continue thinking and reflecting on the meaning of the story. What a memorable story!