Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl - Book Report/Review Example

The Lowliness of the BFG Images of diversity in what we read can have a profound impact upon how we view the world around us. Everyone is exposed to the stories of our age either through books, films, cartoons or storytelling. Literature has the ability to affect the way that we think about those who are different from us, those who have different cultures and sometimes work to encourage a particular dominant worldview. It is up to the author to determine what should be placed as 'good', 'desired' or 'right' and then to contrast this with something that is 'bad', 'undesired' or 'wrong'. To what degree depends on the variables that make up the story. They may derive from any number of aspects of the communication content. "They may be considered as psychological or political or economic or sociological. They may operate upon opinions, values, information levels, skills, taste, or overt behavior" (Heibert, 2001). In stories such as The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) by Roald Dahl, many of these ideas are included as a 'runty' giant kidnaps a young English girl, Sophie, and reveals an entirely new world to her. This world is one in which giants twice as tall again as the BFG routinely scour the world for tasty human treats to eat at night and then spend their daytimes sleeping in the bright sun of their homeland or fighting with each other. Through his revelations to Sophie, the BFG is clearly not accepted by the other giants and is outcast from them not only because of his physical differences, but more importantly because of his steadfast refusal to eat human 'beans' and his lifelong desire to bring joy to the lives of others. The BFG differs to a great degree in appearance from his fellow giants, which immediately marks him as distinctly different and thus suspicious. Upon Sophie's first sight of him, he is correctly dressed for nighttime traveling with a large black cloak covering his clothing and carrying a suitcase. Upon arriving in his cave following her kidnapping, "Sophie saw that under the cloak he was wearing a sort of collarless shirt and a dirty old leather waistcoat that didn't seem to have any buttons. His trousers were faded green and were far too short in the legs. On his bare feet he was wearing a pair of ridiculous sandals that for some reason had holes cut along each side, with a large hole at the end where his toes stuck out" (27). Despite the dilapidated and ill-fitting condition of his clothing, the BFG's apparel is described in much more socially acceptable terms than the clothing of his fellow giants. These are described as being "all naked except for a sort of short skirt around their waists, and their skins burnt brown by the sun" (37). In many ways, this depiction can be compared with the colonialism of England as the small, civilized country attempts to take over management of the much larger, drier and uncivilized countries of Africa and Australia and remains focused on the negative elements of the barbarian and the positive elements of the civilized man. The other giants are savage barbarians contrasted against the civilized society of England. The much smaller BFG, doing what he can to mimic the higher social ideals, is outcast because of his civilized yet smaller state. As a native who has dedicated himself to the service of the white man complete with adopting his habits and customs, the BFG is seen as something of a traitor to his own kind regardless of his motivations or values. One of the first things that is learned about the BFG is not that he is smaller and better dressed than the other giants, but that he strongly differs from them on the question of diet. Sophie assumes, and is largely correct, that the primary staple of the giant diet is a human being. In terror, she begs the BFG not to eat her when he mentions how hungry he is and the two go into a long discussion about the culinary delights of humans. The ridiculous play on words and regional qualifiers is entertaining, however, when it comes to his own diet, the BFG takes offense in the idea that he might share these habits. "Me, gobbling up human beans! This I never! The others, yes! All the others is gobbling them up every night, but not me! I is a freaky Giant!" (34). The BFG condemns the other giants' eating habits through a form of silent protest. He refuses to eat humans himself and holds himself to the highest ethical standards in refusing to even steal the occasional tasty vegetable from the world's gardens as a respite from his highly unappetizing snozzcombers. More than considering the other giants disgusting for their habits of eating human beings, the Big Friendly Giant considers eating all meat wrong. When Sophie comments that eating humans is wrong because the humans never did anything to the giants, the BFG points out "That is what the little piggy-wig is saying every day ' He is saying, 'I has never done any harm to the human bean, so why should he be eating me'" (91). The other giants, though, consider the BFG's choice of eating a purely vegetable diet, particularly when the only available vegetable is the vile snozzcomber, strange, unusual and very suspicious. Again, he is positioning himself as different from them in a fundamental way and this is considered vaguely threatening to them. Their suspicion carries over not just in knowing that the BFG appears different from themselves and suspecting that the BFG thinks differently from them, but also that he acts differently from them. To begin with, he lives in a cave while the rest of the giants prefer to sleep under the bright sun, but this is not made a great deal of. What is considered strange is the BFG's habit of leaving giant land in the middle of the day, when the rest of the giants are resting for their evening human hunting expeditions. This suspicion is made clear when one of the other giants catches the BFG on his way to dreamcatching with Sophie. "Now then, you little grobsquiffer ' we is all of us wanting to know where you is galloping off to every day in the daytime. Nobody ought to be galloping off to anywhere until it is getting dark. The human beans could easily be spotting you and starting a giant hunt and we is not wanting that to happen, is we not'" (83). Because they cannot understand the BFG's stance on the eating (or not eating of human 'beans'), it is pointless for the BFG to try to explain to them what his activities are when he leaves during the day and why this is integral to his evening activities. Because they cannot understand what he does with his time, the other giants have no option but to believe that he is doing something that will threaten their own survival. The BFG is an outcast among his fellow giants because he is physically, mentally and actively different from them. He is smaller in stature than the other giants but pays much more attention to his appearance and proper dress rather than the dirty rags worn by the others. He is mentally different from them in that he has considered the moral and ethical implications of eating meat and concluded that humans have as much right to life as he does himself. Because of his differences, the BFG chooses to spend his time much differently from the other giants, which finally proves too different for them to continue to ignore as they vaguely suspect him as a threat to their way of life. In presenting this seemingly simple story, Dahl is able to address numerous aspects of our greater culture. Politically, he reinforces the concepts of colonialism while psychologically, he champions the independent thinker. Economically, he reinforces ideas of reciprocal relationships between doing the right thing and being financially rewarded while sociologically, he emphasizes the importance of caring for one's fellow man, all through the story of a simple giant who was not accepted by his mates. Works Cited Dahl, Roald. The BFG. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982. Read More