Brynasia White
October 3, 2014
English 102
The similarity between Shel Silversteins “The Giving Tree” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez “The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings “ both have characters who was used by people who later regretted their departure. The characters in both of the stories showed how cruel people can be and how others can take full advantage of your generosity. The characters showed the sacrifices they make for the sake of their relationship and situations. It showed the depths some people are willing to go for the people they love or even just for the fact of being accepted. The relationships between the characters in each story were weird and unusual such as the relationship of the tree and the little boy. The tree natured the little boy as if she was his mother while the neighbors laughed and threw stuff at the angel as he sat there hopeless and was used to make money.
The word grotesque William T. Free described it as “something playfully gay and carelessly fantastic” (Free 216) but also something ominous and sinister. I look at it as something weird or disgusting or even being a necessity. Grotesque can also be comically or repulsively distorted. Free also stated it’s the reality of inmate things that is separated from those of plants, animals and human beings where the law of states, symmetry and proportion is no longer valid (Free 216). Grotesque can also be explained as something not normal and something openly resisted. It can be chaotic and the inexplicable.
In Shel Silversteins “The Giving Tree” the tree had one boy who visited her and she became so attached to him. When the boy was young he was innocent, loving and playful but as he got older he became selfish, materialistic, insecure and jealous. Whereas the tree was always loving, generous and giving. Its grotesque because how can a tree natured and care for a child as if she’s the mother, this scenario showed the abundance and generosity of nature. As the boy was young he would go to the tree gather her leaves and make turn them into crowns, climb up her trunk, and eat her apples. Also, they would play hide and seek and when he was tired he would sleep in her shade. The boy loved the tree but the tree loved the little boy way more. As the little boy got older he began to separate himself from the tree his excuse to as why he couldn’t play with her was he was getting too old. Everything he asked the tree for if she didn’t have it she offered a way for him to get it. From apples for money, branches for a house, to her trunk to make a boat. The boy took everything from the tree up until her last bit of shade. The tree provided everything for the boy and all she wanted was for the boy to be happy because she loved him. The boy used the tree and only when it was beneficial for him. The relationship they built was very weird because how can a tree talk and how can a tree act as a parent to a child. The tree did what any parent would do for their child not a complete stranger that you met from walking by. The boy needs became insatiable he never was concerned or even understanding to the need of the tree while his greed was killing her.
In Garcia Marquez “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” the angel appeared in the backyard of Pelayo and Elisenda. The angel appearance was ominous yet sinister. The angel was described dressed as a rag picker with only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and a very few teeth in his mouth. His wings were dirty and half plucked entangled in the mud. Once the realized they can profit off of him. Pelayo and Elisenda locked him away in the chicken coop and found the whole neighborhood outside playing with the angel. “They found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence, tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal. (Marquez 36) They neighbors reacting to the