The Selfish Giant
Summary
"The Selfish Giant" is a beautiful short story by Oscar Wilde that conveys a strong message about love, kindness, and the importance of sharing. The story revolves around a giant who owns a lovely garden, where children used to come and play joyfully. However, the giant, being selfish, builds a huge wall around the garden to keep the children out.
After the children are forbidden, the garden falls into eternal winter — no flowers bloom, no birds sing, and the place becomes cold and lifeless. The selfishness of the giant turns the once lively garden into a dead and sorrowful place. One day, the giant notices that spring has returned to parts of the garden where the children have sneaked in through a hole in the wall.
Realizing his mistake, the giant’s heart melts with love and he knocks down the wall, inviting the children back. Once again, the garden becomes vibrant with life, full of flowers and happiness. The giant becomes friends with the children and learns the true joy of giving and sharing.
Towards the end, the giant meets a special child who symbolizes divine love and salvation. After living a happy life by sharing his garden, the giant peacefully passes away and is taken to paradise.
Moral of the Story
The story teaches that selfishness leads to loneliness and sorrow, while love, kindness, and generosity bring happiness and peace.
Understanding the text
a. Where did the children use to play?
The children used to play in the Giant’s garden.b. What did the Snow and the Frost do to the garden?
The snow covered the grass with its large white cloak and Frost painted all the silver trees.c. What did the giant hear when he was lying awake in bed?
The giant heard a beautiful music when he was lying awake in bed.d. Why do you think spring season never came to the giant’s garden?
I think the spring season never came to the giant’s garden because he was cruel to the chidren.e. How did the giant realise his mistake?
The giant realised his mistake when his garden was covered by snow and frost as he stopped children from visiting the garden.Reference to the context
A. Read the extracts given below and Ans the questions that follow.
a. “How happy we were there!” they said to each other.
i. Where does ‘there’ refer to?
‘There’ refers to the Giant’s garden.ii. What does ‘they’ refer to?
‘They’ refers to the children who used to play in the Giant’s garden.iii. Why are they saying so?
They are saying so because they aren’t allowed to play in the giant’s garden anymore as the giant had chased them out of his garden.b. “I have many beautiful flowers,” he said; “but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.”
i. Who is the speaker?
The speaker is the Giant.ii. Who is he speaking to?
He is speaking to himself.iii. Who are ‘the children’ that the speaker is referring to?
‘The Children’ that the speaker is referring to are the small and innocent school kids who used to play in the Giant’s garden.iv. Why is the speaker saying that ‘the children are the ……’?
The speaker says ‘children are the most……..’ because the children bring joy and happiness in the garden as like the flowers.c. When the little child smiled at the Giant, and said to him, "You let me play once in your garden, today you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise," shortly afterwards, the happy giant dies. What is the coincidence of this event? Describe it in relation to this fairy story.
The coincidence of this event once, the giant let the little child play in his garden and make him happy and today the same child wants to take him to his garden paradise to make him happy in return, which means the final time of the gaint has come and the little child is a messenger/ fairy who wants him to the heaven because of his noble works.B. The story makes use of personification as one of the main figures of speech. Cite three examples of personification from the story. What is the significance of the seasons personified in the story?
The practice of representing the objects, qualities etc. as the human beings in art and literature is called personification. Three examples of personification from the story are the beautiful little flowers who slips back into the garden after seeing the notice board, the snow and the frost who says that the spring has forgotten this garden.The story has the significance of the seasons personified. At the beginning, the seasons bless the garden with pleasant weather until the Giant sends the children away from his garden. Because of the Giant’s unkindness to the children, the spring season leaves the garden. The seasons disfavor indicates that the Giant’s selfishness goes against the natural order and thus deserves punishment. Thus the significance of the seasons personification is to show that if someone does bad then he/she will deserve the bad.