The Giving Tree Personification

By evaluating the duality of illustrations as both mechanisms for pictorial representation and the process of narrative clarification, the images in Shel Silverstein’s picture book The Giving Tree (1964) consequently solidify as the dominant mode for communicating the text’s overall themes to the reader. In visually presenting the pattern of action of personification and sacrifice, and the recurring image of isolation, Silverstein’s illustrations actively portray one such theme of the destabilizing physiological and psychological effects of rape on the female body and mind. As such, these trends ultimately elevate the overall meaning of the work by inherently presenting readers with a socio-political consideration of the destructive consequences
For instance, in the beginning of the text when the Boy comes to play, the Tree is drawn with branches beckoning him nearer (Silverstein 5). Later, when the Tree has lost its trunk, an illustration of it stooping toward the bottom edge of the page seemingly conveys recognizable body language akin to a depressive expression (Silverstein 46). This choice to display the Tree with human-like qualities in the illustrations, suggests that like the Boy, the Tree has access to all of the nuances of a complex being and the unique facets of identity such as individual
Thereby, it is through this gendering that the Boy’s plundering of the Tree--as the result of dehumanization and a desire for personal wealth--transforms to infer the actions of rape as an infringement against a now, specifically female body. By depicting the theme of rape through the personification and personal loss of the Tree over the course of the text, associated illustrations further demonstrate a problematic view of North American gender expectations. Notably, that it is the role of women to commit or devote themselves, often physically, as a means of ensuring male based satisfaction and