Somebody finally fixed the ending of The Giving Tree.

Somebody finally fixed the ending of The Giving Tree.

This weekend on Instagram, I discovered something I never knew I always wanted: a helpful update to Shel Silverstein’s psychotic parenting allegory The Giving Tree, in which a tree gives up e…

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This weekend on Instagram, I discovered something I never knew I always wanted: a helpful update to Shel Silverstein’s psychotic parenting allegory The Giving Tree, in which a tree gives up every molecule of itself to help some ungrateful kid, and we’re supposed to think it’s good and noble or something. Yeah, you remember.

Anyway, playwright and screenwriter Topher Payne has now fixed it. The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries is part of Payne’s “Topher Fixed It” series, which was created in support of The Atlanta Artist Relief Fund, and which offers printable alternate endings for certain problematic children’s books. (He also accepts tips.) “Ever settle in with the young person in your life to read one of your childhood favorites, like The Giving Tree or The Rainbow Fish, only to get halfway through it and go, “Wait, WHAT?” Payne writes. “Well, good news. I fixed it.” Also included is a fix for that most frightening of children’s books (in my opinion): I’ll Love You Forever.

“Just read The Giving Tree as usual, right up to the point where the Boy comes hustling for a house. Then feel free to print these pages and read as an alternative to everything that follows,” Payne writes. I think I’ll do just that. (Eat your heart out, Ryan Gosling.)

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

On one hand, rewriting famous children's books like this doesnt sit right with me. On the other hand, the giving tree is kinda fucked up huh

 

[Bakarina]

On one hand, rewriting famous children's books like this doesnt sit right with me. On the other hand, the giving tree is kinda fucked up huh

Children's tales used to be fucked up because they held hard lessons that children should know about. OG fairytales were dark and disturbing and didn't always have a happy ending.

The Giving Tree teaches that while it's a good thing to help others, don't let people take advantage of you wanting to help them. The tree's fate is supposed to be sad, that's the whole point of it.

 

[murdered meat bag]

On one hand, rewriting famous children's books like this doesnt sit right with me. On the other hand, the giving tree is kinda fucked up huh

yeah but the original is represent life as it is and this alternative is a soyboy fantasy. i suppose an alternative to the alternative is that the bakery shut down because 2 faggots came and demanded a wedding cake. the baker forecloses and returns his house and land to the bank who then built affordable housing and then the section 8 dwellers cut up the tree anyway, and piss on it. The tree gets the rot and it dies forgotten.

 

[Unpaid Emotional Labourer]

The Giving Tree is fine. It’s about a parent’s love for their child. Yes it is supposed to be sad, because it’s supposed to nestle in the kid’s brain and help them begin to understand their parents who are always selfless and protective can be taken advantage of, and to help them think about their own requests and demands and to learn to be kinder to mom and dad. The boy never improves, he remains selfish. But, the child is meant to understand that, not like it, and then it remains in the back of their mind as they grow to try to be less like the boy.

Now from the perspective of a parent, it is entirely beautiful and...my kid is welcome to take my leaves and apples and eventually grind down my stump, if she needs to, and it makes their life better. That is how a real parent feels.

The Rainbow Fish, on the other hand, was purchased for its beauty and then read only once because fuck that commie shit.

 

[Evil Enchilada]

"Fixed"
Kill yourself. Without a single hint of irony, please kill yourself.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

I’m not the only one who gets really sad when I read The Giving Tree, right? That’s what love and friendship used to mean to people. When I was young saying you loved someone was a declaration that you could lay down your life for that person. A friend was someone who would fight with you and for you, to whom you you were dedicated and could depend on. The Giving Tree was the best a friend could ever be, it gave everything so that the person most precious to it could be happy. It’s such an inspiring and sad story.

 

[Weed Eater]

"The Giving Tree" is every parent's chance to give their young child the first, healthy dosage of what "life" is, even further, what it means to be a parent and the sacrifices it comes with.

There's a reason why it's heartbreaking, it's not that the boy is "selfish", it's the first time some of us understood what it meant to our parents to be alive to them. Our tears was the proof that we understood, and were grateful not just for ourselves but to the life they gave us and still continue to give us even if we no longer live with them. To change it is to change the lesson, and that's the biggest thing that makes me upset about this asshole's "retelling". The retelling has more selfishness than the original ever did.

Here, fucking cry your soul out to the original. Don't make me be alone in my feelings like this.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

The Giving Tree is a story about selfless love and noble sacrifice, it's about the awesome power of deep love, the real shit, that will make you destroy yourself for somebody else and smile the whole time you're doing it. most people don't experience that kind of love unless they have a kid. there was a time when this kind of love was held as an ideal, but people today, especially our cursed generation, who have largely been the beneficiaries of this kind of love (from our retarded boomer parents) without experiencing the other end for ourselves (because we're all largely petulant adult children), read this kind of story and think it's a fucked up tale about an idiot killing a tree. it's extremely telling that the "fixed" lib version is about an annoying asshole tree that gives only as long as it's not an inconvenience, but as soon as it's asked to perform any real sacrifice it instantly switches modes and bitches and scolds their supposed loved one for daring to ask something so Problematic™. and then the boy, impressed by the power of the tree's Feelings, decides to improve himself by going to college (lol) and starting a business (double lol) which gives him prosperity such that he doesn't have to ask the tree for anything anymore. and everyone lives happily ever after in the shadow of the asshole tree, who gave the greatest gift of all: a condescending, self-interested lecture about respect in order to refuse responsibility for doing anything material for their friend, while using guilt to preemptively deflect any accusations of selfishness. great material for kids!

btw this is the NOT GAY incredibly straight and chad motherfucker who wrote the edit:

 

[Tuxedo_Zemus]

Topher Payne is a degenerate homo and I'm tired of millennials like him ruining people's childhood memories with their snide, fedora tipping, Rick and Morty cynicism. He pulled the same shit with "I'll love you forever" too.

 

[round robin]

leftistmemes.jpg

 

[FierceBrosnan]

I’m not the only one who gets really sad when I read The Giving Tree, right? That’s what love and friendship used to mean to people. When I was young saying you loved someone was a declaration that you could lay down your life for that person. A friend was someone who would fight with you and for you, to whom you you were dedicated and could depend on. The Giving Tree was the best a friend could ever be, it gave everything so that the person most precious to it could be happy. It’s such an inspiring and sad story.

Honestly as a kid The Giving Tree just made me a little sad, as an adult it breaks me. It's one of those things that hits harder with age. It's still a beautiful story with a very good and honestly very needed life lesson.

 

[Weed Eater]

Honestly as a kid The Giving Tree just made me a little sad, as an adult it breaks me. It's one of those things that hits harder with age. It's still a beautiful story with a very good and honestly very needed life lesson.

I must've been one sensitive kid then, it was a book my mom read to me once and couldn't do it again because all I did was sob my heart out afterwards.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

Honestly as a kid The Giving Tree just made me a little sad, as an adult it breaks me. It's one of those things that hits harder with age. It's still a beautiful story with a very good and honestly very needed life lesson.

It always makes me think of my Dad. I love him so much. He’s my best friend and easily the most important person in the world to me. I feel guilty though, like I’ve been a burden on him my whole life. He’s always been such a strong successful man in spite of all of his hardships. He built everything he has from the ground up and became a true vision of The American Dream. My Dad is everything I’ve always wanted to be and I tried to live up to that. In some ways I have I suppose but I’ve always felt like a failure next to him. I’ve messed up so many times, done a lot of bad things, and through all of it he helped me even though I know I didn’t deserve it. I mean I wasn’t awful or anything, I’ve done a lot of good but I definitely could have been a better son. He deserves a better son. I could never hope to pay him back for all the time, money and emotion he’s put into me. I’ve only been able to do as much as I have because of him and yet I feel like even with that I’ve accomplished so little. Everyone who knows him, and that’s a lot of people, looks at me and expects so much just because I’m his son, but I can’t live up to that. I can try and I will try but that’s all I can promise. In the end I just want my Dad to say he’s proud of me for something that I feel it’s actually worth him being proud of me for. I should be lifting him up now, I should be one to help him and I hope I get the chance to before he’s gone.

 

[Kheapathic]

Of course there's some shit-stain with their head so far up their ass they have a series where they "fix" stuff; seems about as reliable as that guy who "ruins" everything. Just a bunch of self-righteous "I am so smart" shit to be applauded by progressives who are too stupid to understand themes or allegories.

As an aside, I couldn't trust anyone named Topher.

 

[CWCissey]

I can't wait for this faggot's version of The Lorax where the titular character gets sick of Onceler's shit and goes full on Tyler Durden to save the goddamn trees.

 

[Haramburger]

Anyway, playwright and screenwriter Topher Payne has now fixed it. The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries is part of Payne’s “Topher Fixed It” series,

What a surprise, another shitlib who survives via hand-outs for changing other people's art and not creating their own.

 

[Screw Danlon]

Whatever you think of the ending and the overall moral of the story (as far as arboreal metaphors go, I still like it more than the Fall of Freddy the Leaf) Shel Silverstein is a far better writer than this hack.

His books of short poetry are also incredible. In Kennebunk Maine, there’s a 2nd story book store and the steps up to it have the lines from “Invitation” painted on them. I have always loved that.

 

[Zero Day Defense]

"Fixed"
Kill yourself. Without a single hint of irony, please kill yourself.

"Bro, let me fix your book" has every ounce of the same energy as "bro, let me fix your art". It's nonsense performed by hangers-on who lack the talent of the person whose work they supposedly enjoy enough to even bother with "fixing" it.

Someone's art is a crystallization of their vision, start to finish. 999 out of 1000 times you're not even in the position to potentially understand enough of what went into the product, much less all of it. At best, it's as if you grafted the arm of a pig to a man's arm stump, but it's usually more like grafting a tree branch to a slug.

 

[Picnic_Boy]

Apparently, it's only kosher when Westerners cry during Marvel movies and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.