Summary of The Selfish Giant
In this article, we will be studying The Selfish Giant summary. The author of this lesson is Oscar Wilde. The message of the story is co-existence and spreading love. It is a story of a young boy who was a messenger of God and a selfish giant. The giant would not allow the children to play in his garden. Thus, there was always winter in his garden.
Seeing this young boy, he realized that he was being selfish. Thus, he allowed the children to play in his garden and also played with them. After years, the giant became very weak. At that time, this young boy came and took him along with him to paradise.
The Selfish Giant Summary in English
The story starts with the children playing in the garden of the Giant every afternoon after coming from school. The garden was lovely, large, with soft grass, and fruit trees. The trees bore rich fruits and birds sang sweetly sitting on them.
One day after seven years the giant came back. He was staying with his friend, the Cornish Ogre. The children were scared to see him. He saw the children playing and said that he would not allow anyone to play here as it was his own garden. He built a wall around it and also put a notice board. The notice board displayed a warning on it, ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’.
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The children became sad as they had no other place to play. They would wander around the high walls of the garden and remember the beautiful garden inside them.
The spring season came and there were blossoms and little birds all around. But it was winter in the giant’s garden and there were frost and snow. In the absence of children birds also did not sing. Once a flower bloomed out of the grass but after seeing the notice board, it also went back to sleep. Then came the North Wind and the hailstorm. Due to the giant’s selfishness, autumn’s golden fruits also did not come to his garden.
Then one morning, the giant heard sweet and lovely music. It was a linnet singing outside his window. The hail and the North Wind stopped and he could feel the spring. He saw that the children came into his garden through a little hole. The children were sitting on the branches of trees and the trees were blossoming. He also saw the birds flying and hear them chirping. The flowers had also come up.
But, to his surprise, in one corner there was still winter. He saw that there a young boy was standing and he was not able to reach the branches of trees. The tree lowered its branches but still, he could not climb.
At this scene, his heart melted. He realized that he was really very selfish. He decided to put that boy on the top of the tree, pull down the walls, and allow children to play here forever. But when the children saw him, they ran away and the garden became winter again. However, that little boy did not run as he was weeping. The giant put him on the top of the tree and the tree blossomed at once. He kissed the giant.
The other children realizing that the giant is not wicked came back. The spring came back with them. The giant used to play with the children ever afternoon but that little boy was nowhere to be seen. As the years went by, he grew very weak. One winter morning, he saw a lovely tree with white blossoms in a corner. The branches of the tree were golden and the little boy stood under it.
The boy was wounded which made the giant very angry. He told the boy that he will slay the man who has harmed him. The boy told him that these were the wounds of love. The boy smiled and asked the giant to come to his garden. Later, the children found the giant dead under the tree covered with white blossoms
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