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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in James and the Giant Peach, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Children vs. Adults
Assumptions vs. Curiosity
Nature and Growing Up
Fun, Nonsense, and Absurdity
Summary
Analysis
Aunt Spiker shrieks at Aunt Sponge to come look—the peach tree has a peach on it. It’s up on the highest branch. Aunt Sponge is dismissive since the tree never produces fruit, but when she looks, she sees that Aunt Spiker is right. James puts down his ax and turns to stare at his aunts and the tree. He knows something odd is going to happen; he can feel it in the air. James creeps closer to the tree, where his aunts stand and stare at the peach. It looks ripe, so Aunt Sponge summons James to climb the tree and pick the peach. She warns him not to eat any of it himself. Just as James reaches the trunk, though, Aunt Spiker shouts that the peach is growing. The peach grows to twice its original size and keeps going.
Clearly, the magic crystals are having an effect on the peach tree. It’s significant that Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker don’t bother to ask why their barren tree suddenly has a peach on it, which speaks to their incurious natures. There’s also no indication that they plan to share the peach with James, even though they’re going to make him pick it for them.
Themes
