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How Does Shel Silverstein Show Greed?

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How many of you have read The Giving Tree and thought it was just about a boy and a tree? Some people do and they think all they are doing is telling a story to their kid or using it to teach their child to read. This story has so much more to it that people don’t usually look into. In this book there is real emotion and love. In The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein shows the power of generosity and greed through the characters. Shel Silverstein shows generosity through the tree. The tree gives the boy everything from her leaves to her trunk just to make him happy. The tree gives the boy everything no matter how helpless and sad it makes her feel. For example, the boy wants to leave because he is sad and asks the tree for a boat. The tree tells him, “Cut down my trunk and make a boat. Then you can sail away and be happy.” The tree gives the boy what he wants even if it causes her pain to see the boy leaving. By being generous, the tree gives the boy anything she can to make sure he is happy. …show more content…

The boy asks everything of the tree. He asks the tree for stuff like she can just reach around and grab it. Shel Silverstein shows greed through the boy by making him ask for things all the time. The boy asks, “I want to buy things and have fun. I want some money.” All he says is I want, I want. He is greedy with the tree. He acts as if the tree is someone to lean on. The boy is greedy to the tree so he could get what he wants.

The power of generosity and greed is being showed by Shel Silverstein through the characters in the Giving Tree. The Giving Tree has both greed and generosity. The boy gets away with his greed because of the trees constant generosity. On the other hand, the boy might not be as greedy if the tree doesn’t give him everything he needs or wants. Greed can come from spoiling someone or being too generous with someone. Sometimes a simple “no” may be the solution to

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