So, I stumbled across a blog entry, decrying "The Giving Tree" as a horrible work of subversive support for female servitude and co-dependancy, not to mention being adorned by a Picture of a Creepy Guy.
WTF?
I made a few comments there, being one of the few people to disagree with the assesment, and then worked my brain into a deeper rant, so onto my LJ it goes!
OK, so first of all... do adults over-analyze kids books through their own predjudices and baggage or what? Sheesh! If the book was about a male tree and a female child, would people still be freaking out about the co-dependancy? Betcha 10 to 1 people would talk about how nice it was to have a story where the male was in a giving role. And if they were the same gender? Only the truly pedantic would bitch.
Why can't it just be a nice story about generosity and caring? Mebby Uncle Shelby had an apple tree he was close to growing up, and this was his way of writing about childhood experiences? And seriously, folks, if your kids are going to be influenced for life by The Giving Tree, even despite all your role modeling, and discussion, and teaching of your values? The problem is not with the book, it's with you.
Shel Silverstein is one of the Saints of Storytelling. Right up there with Jim Henson. Generations of kids *like poetry* and *use their imaginations* because of his works.
It's like all the fuss over the Narnia books being Christian Allegory. You think kids notice this at all? Think they care? I was in my 20s before I learned about the parallels to Christian philosopy. And all the six bajillion times I read them before that? Thought it was just good fantasy.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
