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• 1 2016-05-09T10:47:47-07:00 Children's Literature 2 Analysis by Alex Burnett image_header 2016-06-02T13:59:04-07:00 Shel Silverstein, September 25th, 1930- May 10th,1999, was an American poet singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of children’s books. He was born into a Jewish family and grew up in Chicago. After graduating college, he attended University of Illinois until being expelled. After being expelled from the University of Illinois, he enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts where he probably felt he fit in better. While attending the Academy Silverstein was drafted into the United States army and served in Japan and Korea. After all of this, he settled down with his family of 3, his wife, his son, and his daughter. His daughter died at the young age of eleven from a brain aneurysm. Silverstein began his journey of being a singer-songwriter, author of children’s books, etc., when he was a teenager. He was never really the “jock” type of guy he may have wanted to be, but because of that it drew him to begin drawing and writing. His ideas were all original; he says that he didn’t have much to be impressed by until the age of 30. This was his work, and it became more important to him than anything else. His first published writing was in the Roosevelt Torch, the student newspaper at Roosevelt University after leaving the Academy. When he returned to Chicago he started to submit cartoons that he had drawn to magazines while also selling hot dogs at Chicago ballparks. After sending many magazines his work, they were finally put into Look, Sports Illustrated and This Week magazines.
  
  Silverstein started writing children’s books when he editor wanted him to write children’s poetry. Then it was children’s books from then on, an interviewer asked Silverstein once if he would take what editors had to say about his work and change what he had. He was confident in what he was writing and doing so he took it all into consideration but wanted his work to be his ideas and to be significant. Many of his books became best sellers and are still to this day. The things that inspired him were his own imagination and goofiness.
  
  Shel Silverstein wrote many successful children’s texts throughout his career including:Everything On It published in 2011, Runny Babbit published in 2005, Falling Up published in1996, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O published in 1981, The Missing Piece published in1981, Where the Sidewalk Ends published in 1976, and many more, but The Giving Tree was one of his best sellers about a boy and a tree. When the editors read this book they initially weren’t huge fans of the story line. They believed it was too much for adults and less for children, that children wouldn’t understand it. The book had many messages which is what made it so popular. The text itself has been translated into more than thirty languages and is named on the lists of best children’s books of all time. 
  
  Literary Analysis:
                                                  
  The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein published in 1964 by Harper & Row, was and still is one of the best children’s books of all time. The book is written about a boy and a tree and the relationship between the boy and the tree and growing up. The way the tree and the boy are depicted, is that the boy enjoys playing with the tree as a child and loves the company of the tree. But as the boy gets older and older he doesn’t come back and visit as much but when he does come back, he talks about what his problems are at that time in hopes of help from the tree. While making this text, green literature was probably not Shel Silverstein’s first thought.  However, The Giving Tree could be considered a piece of green literature because of the way it expresses the way nature interacts with the boy. Although it is not blatant, the relationship between the boy and the tree bring out how, at times if at all, nature is cherished and appreciated. But as things in life get more consuming, nature or in this case the tree, is forgotten. There are many ways to interpret a message from this book, but the green literature view is expressed through the boy and the tree and the use of the tree to the boy throughout his lifetime, and how the tree is always there no matter what. This book depicts nature as a constant in life that is taken for granted.                                                                         
    
  The Giving Tree is a famous children’s book written by Shel Silverstein. The book is about a female tree and a boy that communicate back and forth with each other. When the boy was young, he would play with the tree by swinging on her branches and climbing her trunk. But as time goes on the boy grows up and the tree doesn’t see the boy as much. One day he returns to the tree and instead of playing on her branches he comes back and tells her he wants money so she tells him to pick and sell her apples so that he can make money. After this the boy doesn’t come back until he is an adult looking to make a family and build a house. So like always, the tree offers herself in some way to provide for the boys wants and needs. She offers him to cut down her branches to build a house. The boy does so and again doesn’t return and the tree’s happiness came andwent. The boy returns as an old man and the tree tells the boy she’s sorry but she has nothing to offer him, she is nothing but a tree stump. The boy says all he wants is a place to sit and relax. The tree says that she can provide that for him, he can sit on her stump and rest. The book ends with the boy sitting on her stump and the tree being happy once again, since she is able to provide for the boy and make him satisfied again.
  
  Although this book is written about the tree, the first read may not draw ones’ attention to the “green” of the book. The initial message of the book is the relationship between the boy and the tree. She provides for him and he takes from her with nothing in return. The tree doesn’t seem to want anything in return. This could be also represented as green literature. Green Literature is literature that has a focus on nature.
  
  Green literature can be defined in different ways by different people. But each person’s definition seems to have something in common. Most children’s books contain many colors, bright colors. The Giving Tree is done in black and white and the cover of the book has only two simple colors. Colors can have different meanings to different people based on experiences they’ve had with those colors. The simplicity of the colors in this text makes the words speak even more than they would with the colors. The black and white gives the reader unlimited options of how they may see the pictures with the words and let their own imagination take control like Silverstein did while writing this book. The brightness of the cover is what draws the reader to the book, but the writing is what carries the reader through the book.
  
  The Giving Tree is written about a boy and a tree, and this alone is a definition of green literature. Nature and man are two elements that are meant to be interacted with in order for one another to thrive. As depicted in this book, the boy in a way relies on the tree as a boy and as a man. When he was a boy he never thought that one day he may actually need this tree he loved so much. An example is when the boy grows up he comes back to the tree in distress about money and the tree although cannot give the boy money, allows him to take all its apples and sell them for money (Silverstein, page 13). Another example is the boy comes to the tree complaining of how he wants to have a family and so he needs a house. The tree gives the boy its branches to build the house (Silverstein, page 17). Both of these examples show how the boy and the tree rely on each other. Bringing this back to the definition of green literature, the relationship between man and nature.
  
  Ecocriticism is a good term to back up and go with the definition of green literature. Ecocriticism is the study of the two, environment and literature, and how they interact with one another. Bringing back the interactions between nature and man and the need they have for one another goes with literature and the environment and how the two relate. When the tree offers everything to the boy and never expects anything in return. This is an example; literature is expressing the reality of nature to man every day. Nature gives and gives and never expects anything in return, but  there is never much appreciation when it comes to nature. We take from nature what we want and never return the favor.
  
  Nature and man could be compared to a mother and child relationship, nature being the mother and man being the child. Mothers tend to give and get their children most things they want and everything they will need without expecting something in return for their doing. Nature gives more than just some material things. Nature gives its beauty, to tie it back to the way color really impacts literature. Green literature is the way an author is able to place situations of nature with man and the importance nature has. The boy and the tree do show this but the author expressed it through the simplicity and shortness of the book. This book can teach that the boy’s happiness was the main goal of the tree. Even when there was nothing left to give. Like a mother giving all she can for her child no matter what the case. This is shown in the text when Shel Silverstein writes “I wish that I could give you something… but I have nothing left. I am just an old stump. I am sorry…” “I don’t need very much now, said the boy, just a quiet place to sit and rest.” The tree then says “well an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.” The boy sat down and the tree was happy (Silverstein, pages 25).
  
  When Shel Silverstein writes about the boy being a child once and always playing with the tree and how he grew older and played less with the tree. This could represent events happening in present day. As we age and things get more complicated and there are more responsibilities and more wants and needs, we forget about the simple things that make us happy and the things and people that were and are always there for you whenever you need no matter what the case. Again the tree is giving all it has to the boy even after he has neglected the tree for some time and only comes around when he is in distress or in need.
  
  Shel Silverstein explained that his childhood was a bit different than most kids. He never really got along with everyone because sports weren’t his thing and writing and drawing were what he enjoyed most. The creativeness he put into his works were just strictly from his imagination and experiences without help of reading other writers work. A lot of his writing incorporated nature in some way. It could be thought that possibly he himself was inspired by nature around him and or the lack of. Green literature is usually to show the great things of nature rather than the bad, but in order to see the good you have to see the bad. The boy in The Giving Tree was one that decided to take advantage of what he had and when it was all over there was nothing left for the boy to take or for the tree to give, the point was made that the tree had always given and he had always taken without anything in return. Nature is given to us, all around us but in order to keep it there, it must be cared for properly.
  
  Although Silverstein didn’t seem to grow up much with nature being one of his favorite things. His books and poems are sort of centered around nature and animals and end up having relationships with children or people in his writings. Ecocriticism is a way of defining green literature, the relationship between the two, nature and man and how the two interact physically. This is shown all throughout Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree. The boy and the trees relationship are expressed from beginning to end in this book. Some of the things that make the texts message stand out are the colors and the simplicity. With most children’s books having many bright colors to draw kids in and to help the kids to understand, Silverstein did the opposite. Although the cover is colorful, the rest of the book is in all black and white to give the reader their own way to interpret everything. From the imagination of the colors that could be there to the different ways to take what Silverstein was writing. Comparing this text to a relationship between mother and child is one of the best ways to understand it. A mother would do anything for their child with nothing in return. The tree gives and gives to the boy all that she has and yet the boy seems to always come back for something more. Some people like to call nature, mother nature which makes it even more understanding to believe that the relationship man has with nature is a mother child relationship, as expressed through Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree