Lafcadio The Lion Who Shot Back Analysis

The experiences that many admirable writers undergo is what helps shape them into the great writers they are. May it be a rough childhood or a life full of twists and turns, writers are very good at carrying their emotions into their writing to get through to readers who may be experiencing similar things. This is a way of connecting the reader and allowing them to continue to read the writers work with a purpose. A writer that does exceptionally well with connecting readers in more of a simplistic and abstract way is the well-known poet, Shel Silverstein. He was a very strong and effective writer of children's poems that consist of themes such as relationships, imagination, selflessness, and other topics that give an underlying message that

After publishing Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back, he wrote a book called The Giving Tree, which now can be known as “the most discussed children’s book in history”(“Shel Silverstein”). The story depicts a boy and a tree who are both growing up throughout the story. The story starts out with the boy being around the tree for fun, but as the boy gets older and has less and less time, he uses the tree for more of what he needs. After continuously taking things from the tree, the boy doesn’t come back for a long time. When the boy finally comes back he is an old man and the tree says, “‘I wish I could give you something.../but have nothing left’”(Silverstein). The boy replies with saying, “‘I don’t need very much now’”(Silverstein), he just wants a quiet place to sit and rest. This story evokes not only provokes the loss of childhood happiness, but extracts memories from the reader that brain that makes them emotional. Many argue about what the story truly is getting at; if it’s about love, dissatisfaction, women and femininity, really the list could go on. Silverstein made it this way for a reason, he wanted the reader to be able to relate to it as well as write his personal feeling in it himself. The book is “both sad and ambiguous in intent”(“Shel Silverstein”), and for these specific reasons the book was originally rejected by

It seemed as though every children’s author hid reality from kids and instead wrote about fairytales and dreams. This set apart Silverstein from everyone else because he “valued creativity above everything else”(“Shel Silverstein Biography”) and because he valued this, he was able to hop right into children’s literature. After writing The Giving Tree, Silverstein kept it coming with books like, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. He enjoyed being a “literary trailblazer for presenting grown-up issues to children in a palatable way”(Cannizzaro). Silverstein came to love writing children’s literature because he as still able to express himself in his work, just in a more simplistic way than normal. The motivation given to him through his peers and his readers is what really made him breakthrough as a children’s