This is a short film based on the story written by Shel Silverstein, A.K.A. Uncle Shelby – one of the most revered American children’s authors. It has been translated into more than 30 languages.
As Ben Jackson, a professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University put it:
Is this a sad tale? Well, it is sad in the same way that life is depressing. We are all needy, and, if we are lucky and any good, we grow old using others and getting used up. Tears fall in our lives like leaves from a tree. Our finitude is not something to be regretted or despised, however; it is what makes giving (and receiving) possible. The more you blame the boy, the more you have to fault human existence. The more you blame the tree, the more you have to fault the very idea of parenting. Should the tree’s giving be contingent on the boy’s gratitude? If it were, if fathers and mothers waited on reciprocity before caring for their young, then we would all be doomed.
Jackson, linking the story to the human condition, asserts that readers ought to identify with both the boy and the tree.
– Source: Wikipedia article