Presenting the Giving Tree Kid's Hierarchy of Needs.
On this day in 1964, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was published. As children’s classics go, this one is divisive: it is about noble self-sacrifice? Generosity turned to martyrdom, run amuck? Millennial parent burnout??? Silverstein himself said of the book, “It’s about a boy and a tree. It has a pretty sad ending.”
In honor of its publication anniversary, I will not be writing a hot take, but will instead offer an analysis based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, in an attempt to answer the eternal American question: Why does everyone want boats so badly?
Now, you are fulfilled.
Jessie Gaynor
Jessie Gaynor is a senior editor at Lit Hub whose writing has appeared in McSweeney's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, The Glow was published by Random House in 2023. You can buy it here.
