Children's Literature, Fable
Children's literature? Check.
Not only do we have a young boy as one of the central characters, but we also have simple language and—dun-dun-DUN—pictures. Plus, you're always going to find this book in the children's section of your bookstore or library, which is a pretty good clue. But what, exactly, qualifies The Giving Tree as a fable?
Um, pretty much the tree.
Sure, fables often feature animals, but inanimate or inhuman characters also work. And the tree, while she's given a feminine pronoun (which in English, at least, implies humanity), isn't actually human.
The purpose of a fable is to communicate a universal truth or moral.
Okay, okay, so Silverstein once claimed that The Giving Tree was nothing more than the story of two people in a relationship: one who gives and one who takes. We completely agree.
Even if you don't buy into any of the other theories about the book—that it's a cautionary tale about environmentalism; that it's a heartwarming account of parental love and sacrifice; or that it's an indictment of codependent or abusive relationships—it doesn't matter. The idea that it's simply about a relationship between two people is plenty because what the book is saying about that is that human relationships are complicated.
And that's certainly a universal truth.