The Selfish Giant Analysis

The Selfish Giant is a story about a process of a selfish giant becoming a generous one. The Giant had a very beautiful garden where the children like playing. After the giant expelled children rudely, only the cold winter was in his garden. Finally, he realized that is was his selfishness prevented the coming of the spring. The giant proceeded to ruin the wall of his garden and to welcome children to play in his garden. Years later, the giant died and was taken to the Heaven by the child who was the incarnation of Christ. The giant is unaware of the cause of the winter and his selfishness. The giant is unconsciously cruel instead of inherent evil. The giant’s salvation finally reaches the consummation beyond his death in ultimate transcendence. …show more content…
As the possession owner, he naturally deems the deeds of the children as the infringement upon his property, space and privacy. Both the isolated lifestyle and his assertion of his garden as his personal property contribute to the blindness of his selfishness, as he declares that "my own garden is my own garden, anyone can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.” In this sense, the story also involves the moral degradation in such a society where people only reserve beauty to himself or herself. This moral degeneration defies with the principle of beauty and love advocated by Wilde. Ironically, the dilemma of the giant alludes to the weary and complicated reality. The giant's possession of a fantastic garden as well as his assertion of his property closely resembles the bourgeois lifestyle existing in the realistic human world. His selfishness is partly a result of the existing law and order, since the giant can easily deny the children’s joy of playing in the garden by posting a host as long as he is the owner of the garden. From this perspective, the giant has every right to protect his property, even to cruelly expel the children. In a sense, the giant is blinded by the law system and existing social order, which also contributes to his ignorance of his selfishness. The story thus reveals a paradox between existing law and morals. The giant has a lot in common with his human counterparts. For his insistency on law, his deeds of posting a notice is built on his belief of the social order which is granted by the law. The fairy tale suggests that the existing social order is not equivalent to goodness and moral