A Comparative Ecocritical Reading of Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and Dehrizi’s The Treeless World

Ecocriticism is the bridge between the environmental sciences and literature. Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and Dehrizi’s The Treeless World are both picture books that possess implied environmental themes and share a ‘tree’ motif. The canonical position of The Giving Tree in classical children’s literature functions as a touchstone in comparing similar works, among other nations. This analytic-descriptive research compares and contrasts the representations of environmental elements in the aforementioned works in the light of deep ecology and ecofeminism. Arne Næss, the Norwegian philosopher, coined the term ‘Deep Ecology’ in opposition to Shallow Ecology. Deep ecology connects the understanding of the relation between identity and nature to identifying oneself to a larger eco-cycle known as the ‘Ecological Self.’ Through equating the place of women with nature in a patriarchal system, ecofeminism criticizes the Ecological Self Theory for neglecting the role of gender in the formation of environmental crises. The present article studies the representations of environmental elements and the reciprocal relation between man and nature in the aforementioned works. This research shows that in The Treeless World, the dominant ecological representation is in line with deep ecology and in opposition to ecofeminism; also, it reveals that in The Giving Tree, the dominant ecological representation is in line with ecofeminism.