Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

by John Warner

At the conclusion, reunited with the boy, the tree was once again “happy.” A standardized test question on The Giving Tree, working from a close reading framework, might be something like: Which of the following words best explains the emotions of the tree? A. Sad B. Loving C. Happy D. Content E. Selfless The “correct” answer would be “loving” because the text explicitly says the tree “loves” the boy. “Happy” would trip up many, because it fits the conclusion of the story, but the test writers would be able to point to a line in the text that describes that tree in one moment as “happy … but not really.” Never mind that the best answer would be all of the above, even though “sad” is implicit, rather than explicit. Also never mind that how we see the tree may be significantly dependent on our individual response to the text. Meaning is created when reader and text intersect. Those intersections will be different for different readers. While The Giving Tree is a children’s story, it offers up many different avenues for response and analysis. Some see the tree as an avatar of Christ exemplifying agape, a love that is fulfilled through sacrifice and therefore exemplary. An objectivist like Ayn Rand, on the other hand, would find the tree’s behavior absurd, and in her world view, immoral.