The Giving Tree is awesome for one simple reason: it gives you things. Branches on which to swing, apples to eat, shade when you are tired, wood for a boat and then, at the end of your life, a stump on which to rest. But there's more to this tree — found in Shel Silverstein's 1964 book of the same name — than just some leaves and twigs. The tree raises questions of greed and self-sacrifice. When are we asking too much? Should the tree ever refuse our demands? Oh, Shel, what's with all the moral complexity?