Chapter 1 The Selfish Giant

Chapter 1 The Selfish Giant 

Class 11 English 

Exercise 

Oscar Wilde 

Symbols 

1. The Child — the innocence 

2. Wall — unwillingness to accept others in life 

3. Winter — his cold nature 

4. The wind and the frost — suffering, agony, and
solitude(single) 

5. Spring summer — represent happiness, joy 

6. Tree — self-realization 

7. The corner of the garden — the human life 

Summary of The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde 

The selfish giant is a popular fairy tale however there are a lot of
symbols in the story which make it an allegorical story. The symbols
used in this story have contributed a lot to intensify the meaning of
the story. 

The children are the most important characters who love to play in
the giant’s garden. Here, children represent innocence. They played
in the giant’s garden regardless of whom the property belongs to,
however, the wall made by the giant restricted them from entering
the garden. The wall represents the giant unwillingness to let
others enter his life or property. The wall also symbolizes the selfish
nature of human beings. 

Similarly, when the giant arrives home, he rudely drives out the
children from his garden. The winter takes over the whole change
of his garden after he forbade the children from entering the
garden. Here, the winter symbolizes the cold heart of the giant
which keeps him isolated from love and happiness. The garden
loses its beauty when the snow, wind, frost, and hail start ruling over there. The snow covers the grass, frost paints the trees, the
wind roars around the garden. In this way, they represent the
suffering, agony, and solitude of the giant. Furthermore, the corner
of the garden is to symbolize his past deeds which lead to overall
unhappiness in the garden.

When he saw the trees offering their arm to a child, he realizes his
mistake and reflects on his mistake by helping the little boy to
climb up a tree. He also destroyed the walls and allow children to
play in his garden because he knew that it was him who kept the
spring away. Spring, summer resembles joy, happiness, and
prosperity which came back to the garden with the arrival of
children.

The Selfish Giant – Complete Exercise 

Understanding the text 

Answer the following questions. 

a. Where did the children use to play? 

Answer: The children used to play in the Giant’s garden. 

b. What did the Snow and the Frost do to the garden? 

Answer: 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? 

Answer: 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? 

Answer: I think the spring season never came to the giant’s garden
because he was cruel to the children. 

e. How did the giant realise his mistake? 

Answer: 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? 

Answer: ‘There’ refers to the Giant’s garden. 

ii. What does ‘they’ refer to?

 Answer: ‘They’ refers to the children who used to play in the Giant’s
garden. 

iii. Why are they saying so? 

Answer: 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? 

Answer: The speaker is the Giant. 

ii. Who is he speaking to? 

Answer: He is speaking to himself. 

iii. Who are ‘the children’ that the speaker is referring to? 

Answer: ‘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 ……’? 

Answer: 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. 

Answer: 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? 

Answer: 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. 

C. This story can be read as a fairy story, where the children, the
seasons, the tree, the corner of the garden, the snow, the wind and
the frost are all used as symbolism. Interpret those symbols. 

Answer: The story ‘The Selfish Giant’ is a fairy tale. Here, the
children symbolize innocence, love, compassion and blessings.
Likewise the seasons represents life and death. The tree symbolizes
patience and hope. The corner of the garden depicts the paradise.
Finally the snow, the wind and the frost symbolize pain, suffering
and discomfort. 

D. Which figure of speech is used for ‘winter, frost, snow, north
wind, hail and little child’? Who is the little child compared to? 

Answer: As a fairy tale, the story is full of figures of speech. The
figure of speech is used for ‘winter, frost, snow, north wind, hail and little child’ is personification. The little child is compared to the
God Almighty (Paradise).

Reference beyond the text 

a. What is the main theme of the story? 

Answer: The main theme of this story is selfishness and love. It is
the story of transformation of selfish giant into selfless giant. At the
beginning of the story, the giant was very selfish and wicked
towards the children and he closes the gate of beautiful garden for
them. But later he realizes his mistake when the children stop
coming to the garden and the garden never experiences the spring
season until and unless he allows them to play in his garden. At this
point he realizes the meaning of love and sharing. This story is very
much relatable to the nature of human beings. We hardly share our
belongings to anyone if somebody is needy and we are selfish too.
This story teaches us to share love and compassion to get love in
return. 

b. Does God punish those who are cruel to children and very selfish? 

Answer: Yes, God punishes those who are cruel to children and very
selfish. As in the story, Giant has really been so cruel to the children
and selfish and he didn’t let them play on the garden because of
which spring never came in his garden. 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. In this way
god punishes to those who are cruel to children and very selfish.