The Giving Tree is an artwork that references a children's book by the same name authored by Shel Silverstein. The moral lesson of the book is supposed to be about the gift of giving with unconditional love and the hope that the love will be returned. The female tree falls in love with a young boy and watches him grow. Throughout the boy's life, he asks for many things, and she gives her whole body to make the boy happy. In the end, she is a stump with nothing left to give. She puts the boy's needs before her needs and her self-worth depends on how well she can care for him. There are no boundaries and no appreciation, only self-sacrifice and codependency. I hated reading this to my daughter because it was a reflection of motherhood as I experienced it. Codependency and self-sacrifice are burdens of many mothers, myself included and I see how systemic and gendered it has been for the women in my family. For women all around me.
