Material things providing happiness
At one point in the story, the boy tells the tree, "'I want to buy things and have fun. I want some money.'" This line can be seen as ironic because a very common saying in life is, "Money can't buy happiness." That line goes against this virtue. However, the boy thinks he can have fun and ultimately gain happiness if he has money. The tree doesn't have money but offers up her apples so the boy can get money selling them. She goes on to say, “‘Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in the city. Then you will have money and you will be happy.’” The tree too goes on with the idea the money can bring the boy happiness. Throughout the story, he continuously comes back to the tree asking for a house and a boat and finally a place to rest. This all shows irony because the boy thinks that these material things can give him what he wants, but at the end of the book when he is an old crippling man, he isn’t happy; He’s alone and too old to do anything, showing that his initial desires of wealth and material things did not bring him ultimate happiness.
Stripped of everything, but still happy
As the boy grows older, he becomes more and more greedy. He suddenly doesn’t want happiness and time with the tree but rather wants material things. The tree cannot supply her beloved boy with everything he wants, but she still wants to give everything she can. She doesn’t have much—she’s a tree after all. But when she happily gives all her fruit away to the boy, she is happy. When she gives her branches and leaves, she is happy. When she gives her trunk, she is happy. When she is just a stump but can provide a comfortable seat to the boy, she is happy. If looked at through secular eyes, it seems very ironic to be happy when you have nothing and give everything you do have away. But when analyzed with morality, it is easy to understand and admire the beautiful, giving heart of the tree.
Old man still The Boy
One of The Giving Tree's main characters is the boy. The boy is a small child at the beginning of the story: young, carefree, small, and happy. But soon the boy becomes a teenager, then a man, then a grandfather, then almost unable to move on his own. However, even as an old man, the tree still calls him "Boy". That is his only given name in the story, but it is ironic how he is still called a boy in his elderly years.
