Hmm, to be honest I never thought about it that way before. I guess cuz I only read it as a kid and saw it through kid's eyes. But now that I think about it, the boy was pretty selfish, wasn't he? Wow, I haven't read this in a long time. I wonder what kind of messages one could glean from this book. I always thought the tree represented something bigger than just a woman, but I've never came to a conclusion of exactly what.