Essay Questions

How does the tree's sacrifice of her apples symbolize the exploitation of the world's natural resources?

On the face of it, it seems that the tree gives the boy her apples because she has no money to give him, and is therefore trying to give him what she does have to give in order to help him. However, this actually represents the relationship between man and the earth, and the way in which we have plundered our natural resources for short term financial gain. The boy, having previously enjoyed an innocent and copacetic relationship with the tree, now sees the tree as a source of money, robbing her of all her apples for immediate gratification but without considering the long term, thus depriving himself of the long term pleasures and benefits the tree has to offer.

The boy is essentially a lonely and selfish person. Is this a fair assessment?

The boy seems to be a loner, but happy, when we first meet him. He is actively friends with the tree, healthily able to enjoy is own company, and has a great imagination, although he does seem to be alone a lot and does not see to have any friends other than the tree at all.

As he gets older, his selfishness becomes more apparent. He takes advantage of the tree, It is intimated that he now has a wife and child, but when he comes back to the tree as a middle-aged man he is lonesome again, depressed and apparently in need of getting away from the stress of his life.

At the end of his life he comes back to the tree for friendship which she offers by giving her trunk as a seat to support his weight. From the ups and downs of his life we see that he is selfish with the tree, and so it makes perfect sense that he would be selfish within his other relationships as well, leaving him alone, and this time lonely. The story is both an innocent tale of a boy and a tree but also a cautionary tale that urges the reader to guard against selfishness and taking others for granted.