[1] An editor with Harper & Row stated that Silverstein had made the original illustrations "scratchy" like his cartoons for Playboy, but that he later reworked the art in a "more pared-down and much sweeter style".

These can be summarized:[12][13] Ursula Nordstrom attributed the book's success partially to "Protestant ministers and Sunday-school teachers", who believed that the tree represents "the Christian ideal of unconditional love".

As such, the book teaches children "as your life becomes polluted with the trappings of the modern world — as you 'grow up' — your relationships tend to suffer if you let them fall to the wayside".

Mary Ann Glendon wrote that the book is "a nursery tale for the 'me' generation, a primer of narcissism, a catechism of exploitation", and Jean Bethke Elshtain felt that the story ends with the tree and the boy "both wrecks".

[12] Christopher Westley, writing for the Mises Institute (an anarcho-capitalist think-tank), describes the tree-boy relationship as similar to a socialist or communist government that extracts far too much from its citizens while not providing anything back in return.

[20] Some authors believe that the book is not actually intended for children, but instead should be treated as a satire aimed at adults along the lines of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift.

[21][22] Elizabeth Bird, writing for the School Library Journal, described The Giving Tree as "one of the most divisive books in children's literature".

This overrated picture book thus presents as a paradigm for young children a callously exploitative human relationship — both across genders and across generations.

It perpetuates the myth of the selfless, all-giving mother who exists only to be used and the image of a male child who can offer no reciprocity, express no gratitude, feel no empathy — an insatiable creature who encounters no limits for his demands.Winter Prosapio said that the boy never thanks the tree for its gifts.

[26] One college instructor discovered that the book caused both male and female remedial reading students to be angry because they felt that the boy exploited the tree.

[27] For teaching purposes, he paired the book with a short story by Andre Dubus entitled "The Fat Girl" because its plot can be described as The Giving Tree "in reverse".

[34] University of Illinois Springfield professor Jacqueline Jackson and Carol Dell (1979) wrote an "alternative version" of the story for teaching purposes that was entitled "The Other Giving Tree".

And later, writer Topher Payne came up with an alternate ending by modifying the second half of the book, calling it "The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries".

The 2010 short film I'm Here, written and directed by Spike Jonze, is based on The Giving Tree; the main character Sheldon is named after Shel Silverstein.