Many readers saw religious parallels in The Giving Tree. One writes:
I've been closely following the discussion and don't think I've heard this point made yet: The story is not about the boy, and it's not about parenthood. It's about God and God's unconditional, boundless, reckless, irrational love. It's a modern day Prodigal Son parable.
My wonderful old theology professor, Father Michael Himes, makes this point beautifully in discussing that wonderful parable. He speaks of how many people see the prodigal son as the protagonist, and read the story as fable with the moral of "don't act like this son, and seek forgiveness if you do." But if you listen the parable as Jesus's audience would have heard it, it becomes clear how much that reading misses the mark.
The younger son, who's entitled to no share of his father's inheritance (the oldest son got it all back then), has the audacity to ask for "his share" of his inheritance – before his father is even dead. (To the audience of the day, it's a request that one would expect any respectable father to smack the kid on the head and send him back out to the fields.) Yet the father doesn't – he divides the property evenly. (The listener smacks his head – What is this father doing? Is he crazy?)
The son heads off, spends the money on wine and the women, and eventually falls on hard times, and then sees that he could have it better even as his father's slave. So he plans a speech to give to his father, and comes slinking home – not truly seeking forgiveness but seeking to improve his lot by asking his father again for far more than he deserves. (The listener shakes his head – The son's in for it now. Surely the father will send him away or beat him, or worse.) But the father, who by all rights should consider his son dead to him, is all but waiting by the window, and rushes out to the road to greet his son the moment he sees him coming. (The audience gasps – The man is certifiable. He's letting this boy walk all over him!)
But there is no turning away. No stern words. No apology demanded. The son can't even finish his prepared speech before the father has embraced the son, kissed him, demanded his finest robe for the son. The father even calls for a celebration, and kills the fatted calf. (The audience can take it no longer and erupts. This is insane. How could he do this for a son so undeserving?)
Meanwhile, the good son comes in from toiling in the fields and voices the audience's thoughts: "I've been the good son. I deserve your love – he doesn't. Have you lost your mind? How could you love him after all he's done? How is this justice? How is this fair?" And the father doesn't disagree and doesn't say it's fair. Instead, he responds with undying, unrelenting, irrational love: "Of course I love you. But I love him too, despite it all. He was was lost and has been found."
Jesus is talking about a God who loves in ways that we can't fathom, whose love transcends all notions of fairness – who loves us no matter what. Just like the tree does. We, the readers, have all the reactions to the Giving Tree that Christ's listeners had to that parable. The tree keeps giving in ways that you and I never would – beyond any human measure.
Another writes:
The story is about the despiritualizing effects of consumer culture and indulging our base, acquisitive impulses. It's not a matter of "selfishness" vis-a-vis our altruistic caregivers; it's about coming to terms with the reality that all of the material riches on God's green Earth won't ultimately fulfill one's deepest, existential longings.
Another:
I've observed in local evangelical circles that The Giving Tree is almost required reading for children. The clear message I've gotten is that the tree is Jesus, as he unhesitatingly gave every particle of himself, in advance, to a patently undeserving and ungrateful humankind.
There's a natural guilt, possibly subliminal, that any child would feel on associating with the human in this story, as other readers have noted. Does this guilt inspire humility and a resolve to be more than we have been? Or does it make the story come off as hideous and exploitative? It reminds me of the polarized reactions to Gibson's "The Passion". Nobody was neutral on the subject.
There's nothing that clearly indicates whether this is what Silverstein had in mind, and the analogy is sketchy at best; the tree asks nothing of the boy, and the little bastard doesn't show much resembling repentance or surrender, unless a general world-weariness qualifies. But logic and details matter little here. The evangelicals get teary-eyed even referencing the book, taking on the same distant, reverent glow as when remembering the Savior's sacrifice.
Another:
The tree obviously represents the concept of Christian Love. When they slap you in the face, offer them the other cheek. When they forsake you, send your only son to suffer and die to remove their sins. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for ones friends.
At my Jesuit High School, we were constantly reminded of the Saint Ignatius’ credo, “The happiest people in the world are those who live for others. " The gospels are replete with the message: to truly follow Christ, you must give of yourself until there is nothing left to give. Only then have you truly grasped God’s message for us, relayed in the life and teachings of his only son our Lord Jesus.
Parental love, as described eloquently by your readers, is the truest example of Christian Love. As a new parent, I finally grasp that nothing equates to the love and sacrifice a parent would give for his or her child. It is why the image of God the Father sending his only Son to die on a cross for our sins is such a powerful one.
Today, the Bible can be perverted into any justification one wants, from justifying war, to justifying selfishness, to decrying those of God’s children whom He made homosexual. However, in The Giving Tree, you have the perfect parable for the message of Jesus in the Gospels. We are all given the option in life. We can live Jesus’ example of love and sacrifice, or be selfish.I still pick up The Giving Tree from time to time to remind myself of the struggle I had as a youth with the concept of Christian Love, and the struggle that I have daily with truly living as Jesus demanded.
Another references an old hymn:
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (also known as Apple Tree) is a poem written by an unknown New Englander in the 18th century. It has been set to music by a number of composers, including Jeremiah Ingalls (1764–1838) and Elizabeth Poston (1905–1987).
The song may be an allusion to both the apple tree in Songs 2:3 which has been interpreted as a metaphor representing Christ, and to Jesus' description of his life as a tree of life in Luke 13:18-19 and elsewhere in the New Testament including Revelation 22:1-2. Apple trees were commonly grown in early New England and there was an old English tradition of wassailing or wishing health to apple trees on Christmas eve.
The song is now performed by choirs around the world, especially during the Christmas season as a Christmas carol.
The Dish 