The Power of Children Theme Analysis

Children occupy a special place in the discussion posed by “The Selfish Giant.” By the late 19th century, it had become common opinion among Victorians that children are naturally disposed to goodness, not wickedness—and in “The Selfish Giant,” Wilde proposes that this natural goodness can have a transformative effect on the world. By opening their eyes to the simple perspective of children, and by using their needs as a moral compass, adults can make a fair, kind, just world. The Giant does exactly this when he realizes how his selfishness has harmed the children and makes amends to them by opening his garden to all. Even before this moment, however, the children show an almost magical power to effect goodness in the world, even the natural world. This, together with the appearance of Christ as a child—in the form of the little boy—suggests that the purity of children is a heavenly gift, and that children have the capacity to be powerful transformers of the corrupt world around them.

It’s significant that the Giant becomes kinder solely because of the children’s innocence, goodness, and helplessness. After an unnaturally long winter, the Giant is roused from his bed by the sound of birdsong outside his window, and overjoyed at the sights of springtime—but when he spies the one corner of the garden where it is still winter, and the little boy suffering there, “his heart [melts],” and he realizes that his selfishness is what brought the winter in the first place. Pity for the children—and especially that tiny child in the corner, who is struggling to climb into a tree—is what sets him on the path to redemption, and encourages him to intervene. The Giant is inspired by this child who “stretched out his two arms and flung them round the Giant’s neck, and kissed him” in a gesture of innocent affection. The children forgive the Giant as readily as they ran from him, accepting his reformed nature once he has shown it. In return, the Giant breaks down walls, both physical and emotional, opening himself up to new friendships. Spending time with the children in the years to come, the Giant only benefits further, and he comes to appreciate the children as far more precious than any property he owns. As he remarks in his twilight years, “I have many beautiful flowers […] but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.” Judging by this drastic change in the Giant’s character, it seems that children have some innate power to foster good in the world—that this is some special quality inherent to being a child. Wilde argues that this is a holy, almost supernatural quality.

Furthermore, pleasant weather comes and goes with the children, and the animals and plants respond to them more directly than they ever respond to the Giant, again suggesting that children have an almost supernatural goodness to them. The birds sing specifically for the benefit of the children, because the children stop to listen. The tree in the still-wintry corner of the Giant’s garden even talks to the boy who is stuck there, and “[bends] its branches down as low as it could” for the child’s benefit. Wherever the natural world is most like a fairy tale, it is around the children. Through these miraculous changes that follow in the children’s wake—not just the state of the Giant’s garden, but also his personality and the state of his soul—Wilde illustrates how children, simply by virtue of their gentleness and innocence, are imbued with a profound power to improve the world around them.

Still more tellingly, Christ disguises himself as a child to the Giant, and maintains this form even when he reveals his true divine nature. The appearance of the Christ Child transforms the tree with “lovely white blossoms,” golden bark, and silver fruit, not unlike the Transfiguration of Christ in the Christian Gospels. Just as these goodhearted children alter the people and the world around them, so too does the appearance of the most good, most holy child alter the world in kind. Christ welcomes the Giant into Paradise while wearing this appearance—and as heaven is commonly understood in Christianity to be spiritual model of Christ’s future kingdom on Earth, the reader can infer that this boy Christ symbolizes the childlike qualities of innocence, openness, and kindness that will characterize his kingdom.