Preview

The Metaphor Of The Giving Tree

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
272 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Metaphor Of The Giving Tree
How much will you give up for someone you love? Will you give up everything? Probably not as much as the tree did. Some people take and do not give back they have no sorrow or guilt.
The Giving Tree can be seen as a metaphor for a mother-child relationship. In this story, there is an animistic tree that cares for a boy and will do anything to see him thrive in life. As long as she sees him, she will be the happiest tree in the word but the boy doesn't appreciate the love and care he is given. For example, a mother gives everything to their child, and the child sucks up the resources like a litch for it to benefit and survive. How could a being sacrifice so much? The tree gave up everything she had for the boy, and he doesn’t reciprocate

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    emotional sacrifice but also a physical sacrifice that the speaker did not appreciate. The speaker…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sacrifices are not always easy to make. How much you are willing to give up really depends on how much you care about the person(s) or thing you are sacrificing for. Owen's…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dillard uses this language to equate trees to God in her writing, which, in the context of the chapter, asks us to orient our lives around God. Combining the two images, it makes sense why Dillard would ask if a tree would hear her fall in a forest, as she renders humanity small in insignificant compared to the might of…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The tree is therefore personified as a woman in the story as she exhibits characteristics of the "maternal instinct" and though she did not give birth to the boy she takes him in as if she had.

 One of the main messages portrayed in the story is that unselfish everlasting love ultimately has the greatest effect on the lover not the one being loved. The mother figure/tree was deeply wounded in the long run as every time the boy came for something more, she would have to sacrifice a part of her body to make him happy or satisfy him. Psychologist Barbara Frederickson offers a psychosocial theory on the concept of everlasting love. She describes that it does not exist and ultimately any connects a human being engages in is true love if those engaging in the scene are both portraying strong positive emotions. Taking this theory as fact, it leads to a counterargument on whether or not the tree truly loved the boy or felt obligated to show feelings towards him. Either way, she along the journey of her life loved more than the boy but ultimately ended up sacrificing everything for him, once again portraying that maternal instinct.

 There was also a metaphor…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Our Christmas tree was never even an inch under eight feet, and it took the whole family hours to decorate it. Each year one of us was honored by being allowed to place the angel at the top of the tree, while Father help us up in his strong arms.” (Pelzer 22). This passage is a simile because this is how we are in Christmas, our tree would be long and it takes us a whole hour to decorate it. We are allowed to place the star on top of the tree, and that is what’s amazing about it. This brought my attention and interested me because it showed how good the mother was to her children and hoe kind she treated them, because the name of the chapter called Good Times. It also shows that the kid remember how good she was and then how she turned…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before his incident at the tree, Finny was a sports all star. He was gifted with superior sports skills; this was shown when he beat the school swimming record without ever having practiced at all. Once the fall occurred, Finny’s life was changed forever. “Sports are finished for him [Finny], after an accident like that. Of course. . . . If I [Stanpole] had the slightest hope that he could do more than walk I’d be all for trying for everything. There is no such hope” (55). Finny’s life revolved around sports, and once the accident occurred, his life was over. To Finny, the tree represented loss, sadness, and eventually death. As shown in the book, A Separate Peace, the tree plays a very important role in the lives of both Gene and Finny, the two main characters. The tree symbolizes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the Bible, it represents fear, hatred, and jealousy to Gene, and it also represents loss and sadness to…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who Is Mr. Van Daan

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages

    An example of this is when Mr. Frank and his family barely moved in, Mr. Frank showed compassion towards the Van Daans by offering them a place to stay. Mr. Frank did the same thing with Mr. Dussel, even though he didn’t have any more room in the Annex, he had the compassion to take him in and figure a way that made him comfortable. In this example, it shows that instead of having all the room for himself, Mr. Frank had the compassion to give the Van Daans and Mr. Dussel a place to hide. In the Annex, Mr. Frank sacrificed a lot for his family as well as the rest of the residence staying with him too. As it says in dictionary.com the word sacrificed defines as “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy”.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In The Giver

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “The practice of cloud-seeding garnered considerable attention in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.” Jonas had asked the giver why are there no colors. The Giver said, “Our people made that choice, the choice to go to sameness,” (Lowry 95). This describes how in Jonas’s community there is no climate as the community made the choice to have this type of climate control; and this exists in our society today. In The Giver, Jonas finds out that his community doesn’t know what the meaning of color and the feeling of it. Climate control still exists in our world today.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sacrifice is one of the purest and most selfless ways to love someone. There is no better way to show one’s loyalty or love for another than through sacrifice. The Kite Runner clearly demonstrates the sacrifices individuals made to make the ones they love happy.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    White Heron Essay

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the excerpt from the short story “A White Heron”, Jewett turns an ordinary event into an extraordinary adventure by illustrating the grandeur of the tree. In the beginning of the excerpt, Jewett describes the setting of the story, and explains how this one particular pine tree stands at the highest point in the woods. She explains how this pine tree is possibly left by the woodcutters as a boundary mark, and is “the last of its generation” (Excerpt from “A White Heron” (2). As Jewett describes the tree, readers sense that the tree is valuable and different from the rest of the trees in the woods. It evokes curiosity from the readers as to what will happen to this tree, and readers get the sense that this tree is valuable and unique. This tree which is ordinary turns into something extraordinary. Towards the middle of the introduction Jewett describes how the tree towers over all the other trees in the woods. Jewett goes on to explain how the tree makes a “landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away” (Excerpt from “A White Heron” (6). Jewett describes the tree as if it is like a sky scrapper, and gives readers a visual perspective on how the tree looks like. By showing the…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Sense of belonging is again brought up for characters through the use of imagery. “free from public taunt… tongues in trees, … sermons in stones”. Through this imagery we see the forest as a place “free from public taunt” where the characters can learn better values from the forest. The forest is personified as a teacher with “tongues in trees” and “sermons in stones”, the end of this line “and good in everything” is used to…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a child growing up, Janie took comfort in the pear tree in her backyard. Spending all of her free time there, she became connected with it and “saw her life like a great tree” (25). During the spring season, the tree blossomed and as well as Janie, growing into her new found body and a different mind set. Yet this same season was the end of her childhood. Her first ever experience of a form of independence and affection was cut short by her overly strict grandmother. Janie was maturing sexually and intellectually for herself but her own…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Five, four, three, two, one – blast off! The old truck backed out of the driveway, they were off to get a Christmas tree. Alan is so excited to finally be on the way, Mom and Dad were taking so long to get ready! This time Alan remember to grab the hand-saw, because dad always forgets. After twenty minutes of driving, up and down the bumpy road the family arrives in the deep, dark forest. Alan is the first to see the perfect tree standing right out in the open. Mom thinks it is too small and dad says the tree is very skinny. Alan thought the tree was just perfect, so he grabbed the saw and cut it down. The tree was not heavy at all, he was able to pull it behind him all the way back to the truck. Once the tree was in the house, the…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Giver Symbolism

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stuffed toys, hair ribbons, and beginning school. What do those things have in common? They all represent childhood and getting older. In “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, the theme is growing up. There are three main symbols that prove that the theme is growing up. The symbols are the ceremony, the children getting their careers, and the house of the old.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Trees can be of different types, for exapmle a family tree, a christmas tree, a tree in your back yard and most interestingly the forbidden tree or the tree of knowledge and evil .All these trees have some thing in common; that they are equally important to your life. With out these trees one may not survive because trees are meant to provide you oxygen, food and shelter. Let us look at the importance of each tree indivdually. A family tree is really very important to you because with out it you never know who you are, where you were born to whom family to belong to and who were your ancestors and what language they spoke and in what ways they were different to you. If I think of my family tree, It always surprises me to know that my ancestors were typical arabs of Iraq, spoke arabic and dressed like them. If I were to see them by my own eyes ; I hardly accept them as my blood line. They would remain stranger to me but of course after all they are in family tree. However, I christmas tree is little bit different from other trees .It is also a source of excitement and entertainment. I got a chance of staying in west observing their christmas festivites. I watched every one was eager to buy a christmas tree,a real one or an artifical one; Kids were excited in buying a decorative tree where they can pluck their gifts instead of fruits of their choices. Planting a pine tree for christmas season is a huge business in the west. Although, it has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. Every year it brings billions of dollars to the economy of the west. Any ways,I believe its a great ritual because at least people can get some awareness of the value of trees while paying a big sum of money from their pocket .It reminded me of our festive of Eid- ul-Fitr when buying a small animal for sacryfing some times becomes the utmost wish of a person.How ever, A christmas tree brings life to everyone during the cold winter days of decemeber when every place seemed to be…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays