Tamara’s answer to “What is the overall message for this story??” > Likes and Comments
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hi
Tamera, the terror is the point. This book describes countless, dysfunctional relationships between friends, lovers and, most of all, parents & children.
It’s supposed to make one think twice before taking advantage of/abusing the love that they are given.
Your revulsion is appropriate, but make no mistake, it is also intentional.
I disagree. Its a children's book and I don't think the intention was to teach a lesson. It certainly wasn't written in a way that children who I've seen read it have any clue about the nuances of abuse. Neglect, maybe. But the slow destruction of the tree is portrayed as making the tree happy. It certainly doesn't condemn the boy for taking her very life.
I wouldn’t say that the tree is made happy by the sacrifice, but it is fully willing, if that’s what you mean.
As to the story being allegorical, I mean, the allegory is there. You could assume that it exists accidentally, but this would seem a dubious assumption I think. I wouldn’t expect a child to get all of the nuance, but the core theme of love and sacrifice being so closely related is pretty hard to miss, even if a child couldn’t fully articulate it.
It ends with the tree being a stump, the boy sitting on her, and with the line, 'and the tree was happy.' That does not send a message of warning about sacrificing everything. I completely disagree that it's meant to be a caution.
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Rosemary
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Dec 14, 2016 03:27PM
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Tamera, the terror is the point. This book describes countless, dysfunctional relationships between friends, lovers and, most of all, parents & children. It’s supposed to make one think twice before taking advantage of/abusing the love that they are given.
Your revulsion is appropriate, but make no mistake, it is also intentional.
I disagree. Its a children's book and I don't think the intention was to teach a lesson. It certainly wasn't written in a way that children who I've seen read it have any clue about the nuances of abuse. Neglect, maybe. But the slow destruction of the tree is portrayed as making the tree happy. It certainly doesn't condemn the boy for taking her very life.
I wouldn’t say that the tree is made happy by the sacrifice, but it is fully willing, if that’s what you mean. As to the story being allegorical, I mean, the allegory is there. You could assume that it exists accidentally, but this would seem a dubious assumption I think. I wouldn’t expect a child to get all of the nuance, but the core theme of love and sacrifice being so closely related is pretty hard to miss, even if a child couldn’t fully articulate it.
It ends with the tree being a stump, the boy sitting on her, and with the line, 'and the tree was happy.' That does not send a message of warning about sacrificing everything. I completely disagree that it's meant to be a caution.
