While you’d be on the outside gettin’ thin I’d be on the inside eatin’ up both our rations To teach you a lesson for runnin’ away from me,Īnd I’d lock you out and throw away the key… On the cover of the Rolling Stone.andI only wish they’d drop the bomb tomorrow We got all the friends that money can buy, Screaming all the way! andWe gotta lotta little teenage blue-eyed groupies Makes love to the leg of the diningroom chair.

Nothin’ to strike but a match.andShe fumbles and stumbles I got nothin’ to hit but the wall, oh no… I got stoned… oh me… oh my.andAnd ever since my Masochistic Baby went and left me, Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dadįrom a worn-out picture that my mother’d had,Īnd I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.Īnd I looked at him and my blood ran coldĪnd I said: “My name is ‘Sue!’ How do you do! Leaf the tree alone.ĭon’t know about this coming from a “less cynical time” it was written by the guy who wrote these lyrics: I don’t think the Tree deserves any of the ridicule she’s getting in this thread. Certainly not enough to bring her up to doormat status. Since the text clearly states that this knowledge made her happy, I don’t think she was too shortchanged by the deal. In return, the Tree received the knowledge that the boy was happy. The boy received a bunch of gifts from the tree. So does loving the boy make the Tree a “doormat”? Perhaps, but I view both the Tree and the boy as participants in a transaction.

Still, I will require a specific instance from the text where the Tree was exhibiting passive aggressive behavior before I accept this.) I’ll just wait here and continue being a rotting stump.

You just cut down my trunk and go have fun with it. While the Tree does invite him to play, we never hear her whining “Oh, that’s all right Boy. A more passive-aggressive tree would have tried to use her gifts to get something out of the boy. A martyr would definitely make some mention of her sacrifice as the boy carts away a truckload of her branches. The tree gives up whatever she can despite the fact that she cannot expect reasonable compensation from the boy.įurthermore, an analysis of the Tree clearly indicates that she was no “passive-aggressive martyr.” She never mentions her disappointments to the boy. Have none of you comprehended the message of the Giving Tree? It is clearly a story of unconditional love.

The giving tree board book