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NEB ENGLISH GUIDE CLASS 11: ALL NOTES [ C. ENGLISH |M. ENGLISH] NEB ENGLISH SUPPORT
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The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
MAIN INTRODUCTION
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Write in short about the story "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde.
This short children's story "The Selfish Giant" was written by Oscar Wilde, a writer from Ireland. It was first published in the anthology "The Happy Prince and Other Tales" in 1888. This story is about a giant who has learned an important lesson about love and sharing. The main themes of this story are selfishness, love and care, arrogance, love and compassion etc.
AUTHOR
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Write about the writer of "The Selfish Giant".
Name: Oscar Wilde
Date of Birth: 1854 October 16
Creations: Poems, Plays, Novels and Short
Stories
Birth Place: Westland Row, Dublin, Ireland
Death: 1900 November 30, Paris, France
ABOUT STORY
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
What is this story "The Selfish Giant" about?
"The Selfish Giant" is a short story for children written by Oscar Wilde. It was first published in the anthology "The Happy Prince and Other Tales" in 1888. This story is about a giant who has learned an important lesson about love and sharing. This story holds different meanings for people of different ages.
MAIN THEME
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
What are the main themes in the story "The Selfish Giant"?
We find the following five themes in the story:
1. Arrogance
2. Isolation
3. Love and compassion
4. Forgiveness
5. Consequences of Selfishness
MORAL
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
What moral lessons do you find in the story "The Selfish Giant"?
We find the following moral lessons in the story:
▪︎ If we give happiness to others, we can also feel happiness in our lives.
▪︎ There are always good results from kindness. We shouldn't be selfish towards others.
▪︎ Loving others is the great satisfaction of life.
▪︎ Children should be loved.
▪︎ We shouldn't be bad and show our ill-will to others.
▪︎ Bad deeds are always punished whereas good deeds are always rewarded.
CHARACTERS
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Write about the characters in the story "The Selfish Giant".
The Giant:
The giant is the major character of this story. He has a fine palace and garden. He is quite selfish by his nature. He prohibits all the schoolchildren from playing in his garden. He built a high wall and put up a warning board against all the innocent children. Due to his selfish and rude behaviour towards children, the spring season forgets to appear in his garden. The winter season and its forces only appear in his garden. One day, he realises his mistake, seeing a wonderful sight as well as a lovely child. He breaks his wall and allows all the children to play in his garden. He searches for the lovable boy but is unable to find him. When he meets the lovable child at last, he is welcomed by the child to his lovely garden of paradise. The giant dies in the same afternoon.
The Children:
The children in the story are so lovable and innocent. They are school students. They play in the giant's garden every afternoon after their school. They are chased by the giant. They become quite unhappy because they don't find a proper place for them to play. Later, they wandered outside the wall being upset. But later, the giant allows them to play in his garden. They happily play in the garden along with the giant. They seem quite happy to play in the garden. Along with their arrival, the spring season also appears in the giant's garden.
Little Child:
The little child is the loveliest kid in the giant's garden. He is helped by the giant in the farthest corner of the garden at the time when he is unable to climb the tree. He becomes quite happy after the giant's help. He hugs and kisses the giant. He disappears for a long time after his first meeting with the giant. He reappears in the garden in the old and feeble condition of the giant. The little child invites the old giant to his garden of paradise at last. He is compared to the almighty Lord Jesus Christ in the story.
Personified Characters: Spring, Summer, Autumn
All these characters are personified in the story. They show their acts just against the giant's rude behaviour towards the children. They play vital roles in making the giant's garden look ugly all year round.
Forces of Winter: North Wind, Hail, Frost, Snow
These are the forces of the winter season. These forces are also personified in the story. After the rude behaviour of the giant, they play their roles against the giant and his garden. They decide to live in the giant's garden all year round when they realise the absence of the spring season in the giant's garden.
The snow covered up all the grass in the giant's garden with her great white cloak. The frost painted all the trees silver. They invited the North Wind, who was wrapped in fur, and roared all day in the garden and blew the chimney pots down. The hail also arrived at their invitation. Hail rattled the giant's roof every day for three hours and broke most of the slates. He took his fast round in the garden, dressing grey with icy breath.
MAIN SUMMARY
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
What is the summary of the story "The Selfish Giant"?
Once upon a time, there was a tall, massive and ugly giant who was really very selfish by nature. He had a beautiful garden in his castle. There were beautiful flowering plants, soft grass and twelve peach trees in his garden. In the spring, peach trees used to bear beautiful pink and pearl flowers, and in the autumn, they used to bear rich fruits. The birds used to sit in the trees and sing very sweetly.
Every afternoon, many children used to play in that giant's garden when they came back from school.
Seven years ago, the giant had gone to visit a friend named Cornish Ogre. One day, he came back to his castle. He found children playing in his garden. He became quite furious to see that sight. He cried, "What are you doing there?" The children ran away out of fear. The children became quite sad because they didn't have a proper place to play. They didn't like to play on the road due to the dust and hard stones. The Giant built a high wall around his garden and put up a notice board on which he wrote a warning line:
"TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED"
When the season of spring came, there were little blossoms and birds all over the country. But the garden of the selfish giant became completely desolate. Snow, frost, the north wind and hail came there one by one. The Giant became quite sad because everywhere summer, spring, and autumn came, but in his garden, there was always winter. One morning, the giant heard very lovely and sweet music. It was a little linnet singing outside his window. A delicious perfume came to him through the open casement. He thought that spring had come. He peeped out but saw a wonderful sight. The children had come into the garden through a little hole in the wall. They were sitting on every branch of the tree. The trees were in full bloom. The birds were twittering and singing melodiously. In the farthest corner of the garden, there was a very little boy who couldn't reach the branches. Seeing that sight, the giant's heart melted. He said to himself, "How selfish I have been! Now I have understood why spring didn't come in my garden". The giant took the little boy and seated him in the tree. The little boy kissed the giant, feeling happy. The giant said to the children, "It is your garden now, little children!" Thus, there was another spring throughout the year.
After many years, the giant became quite old and weak. He kept on watching the children at their games. He didn't meet the lovable little boy after his first meeting. He inquired about him a lot but couldn't get any information about him.
One morning, during wintertime, he saw a marvellous sight of a tree in the farthest corner of the garden. He saw white flowers, golden branches, and silver fruits on the tree. He saw the same little boy underneath the tree. He became quite happy and rushed towards him. He became angry to see prints of nails on the little boy's palms and feet. Eventually, he realised that the little boy was a divine power of God. Once, the giant let the little boy play in his garden. The little boy also wanted to take the giant to his garden of paradise in return. The giant died at last, and his dead body was completely covered with white flowers.
This story teaches us not to be selfish. We should love and help others as much as we can, especially children.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
b. Is it good to be selfish?
Answer:
No, it isn't good to be selfish. Selfishness never allows people to live with satisfaction.
c. How do selfish people behave?
Answer:
Selfish people behave in a very rude way. They don't care about others' miseries. They are too self-centred.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
a. Where did the children use to play?
Answer:
The children used to play in a wonderful garden of Giant during the afternoon after school.
b. What did the Snow and the Frost do to the garden?
Answer:
The Snow and the Frost were the two specialists who showed up in the Giant's garden after the impolite conduct of the Giant against the children. The snow concealed the grass with her extraordinary white shroud, and the frost painted every one of the trees silver. They even welcomed the North Wind to remain with them.
c. What did the giant hear when he was lying awake in bed?
Answer:
The giant heard some beautiful music from a little singing bird linnet when he was lying there restlessly. He heard the music after quite a while.
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 to see the miserable condition of the children. She ended up being so irate and never came to the Giant's garden to track down the Giant's impoliteness and narrow-mindedness against the guiltless children.
e. How did the giant realise his mistake?
Answer:
The giant realised his mistake after encountering strange changes in his garden. He figured out snow, frost, north wind, fog, and so on in his garden. He felt regret for the multitude of acts he had done against the children. Yet again, when the children returned to his garden, the garden sprouted with leaves and blossoms. He even heard the trilling of birds in his garden. Consequently, he understood his mistake.
REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT
A. Read the extracts given below and answer 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 garden where children used to play after school.
ii. What does ‘they’ refer to?
Answer:
They refer to the children who used to come and play in Giant's garden after their school.
iii. Why are they saying so?
Answer:
They are saying so because they aren't permitted to play in the giant's garden any longer. The giant has driven them out of his garden, enraged.
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 an old and weak Giant who continues to watch the children at their play sitting on his easy armchair.
ii. Who is he speaking to?
Answer:
He is speaking to himself admiring his garden.
iii. Who are ‘the children’ that the speaker is referring to?
Answer:
'The Children' that the speaker is referring to are the little and guiltless younger students who partake in a ton in Giant's garden.
iv. Why is the speaker saying that ‘the children are the most beautiful flowers of all’?
Answer:
The speaker is saying that 'the children are the most beautiful flowers of all' because he has encountered the presence of youngsters in his garden. He has noticed their straightforwardness and guiltlessness. He accepts that the children are the endowment of lovely nature, and their presence has made the whole garden look so wonderful and sprout with various types of leaves and blossoms. He makes the correlation here to esteem the children much since he knows the worth of children in his garden more than 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 tale.
Answer:
The following time, the little child returns to one of the garden's corners. The giant is very old and weak as of now. The little child seems to have this chance to incline towards the giant, who, whenever inclined towards him, would play in his garden. The giant continues to look out and hang tight for the little child. He is actually alive just to meet the charming little child. At long last, after the little child's words, he dies in the evening.
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:
Here, the writer has impeccably utilised a figure of speech. The three instances of personification are the snow, the frost, and the north wind. The meaning of the seasons represented in the story is that they are connected with nature and assume an extremely fundamental part in changing the giant's garden with a one-of-a kind power against awful deeds.
C. This story can be read as a fairytale, 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:
Here, the spring season represents satisfaction, while the winter season represents languishing. The tree represents the character of the little child as Christ. The corner side of the garden represents the holy spot of God, from where recovery is conceivable. The snow, the wind, and the frost represent remarkable power against awful deeds.
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:
Here in this short story, we find the perfect use of personification. Here, winter, frost, snow, north wind, hail, and little children have been magnificently personified. Among these winters, frost and snow have been represented as feminine orientations with a special power. They have finished their undertakings against the giant's demonstrations. The north wind, hail, and little child have been exemplified as masculine orientations with powers.
The little child is compared to the almighty Lord Jesus in this story. This little one has been given heavenly abilities and has the ability to make a huge difference. Because of his presence, the garden has blossomed with delightful leaves and blossoms. The indications of two nails on the palms and feet of the small kid have helped us remember the torturous killing of the Lord Jesus.
REFERENCE BEYOND THE TEXT
a. What is the main theme of this story?
Answer:
There are various themes here in this story: a presumption, the results of self-centeredness, love and sympathy, the idea of salvation, and so on. Great deeds are constantly compensated, though awful deeds are rebuffed all of the time. Here, we essentially observe the presumption of the giant and his self-centeredness against the kids, which have brought terrible outcomes for him. Be that as it may, because of his great deeds, he has a fine stage to reach heaven.
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. Children should be extremely blameless and infants of God. They are known for their straightforwardness. Their presence is an indication of the promise of something better. We can get a fine model from this anecdote regarding God's discipline towards the giant. He feels remorseful for his terrible deeds.
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