Dahl Roald, The BFG, Great Britain, Penguin Group, 200pages, 1982.
Plot Summary:
Giants aren’t real…are they? Sophie, a young girl in an orphanage, looks out her window one night and sees this twenty-four foot high giant. This Big Friendly Giant is just doing his job. Noticing that Sophie has seen him, he kidnaps her, not because he is mean, but because he is afraid that she will tell someone about him. If people know about him, he will be captured.
Shortly after arriving back at the BFG’s cave, Sophie is no longer scared. The BFG tells her that he is a nice giant who uses his big dream trumpet to blow dreams at people through their windows at night. He also informs her that he is not a people-eating giant. He doesn’t eat people because he could never do anything so mean. Instead, he eats snozzcumbers, which he does not like. His one delight is frobscottle, a drink where the bubbles go down instead of up.
Not all giants, however, are as nice as the BFG. Actually, none of them are. The others pick on the BFG for being smaller and a non-people gobbler. They do not like that he is different. These other giants are on a mission, a “human bean” harvest all over the world.When Sophie is nearly caught, and the children of England are in the same danger, the BFG devises a plan to warn the Queen of the danger ahead. He makes a dream about the giants and he and Sophie head to England. The Queen receives the dream, meets Sophie and the BFG, and the three have breakfast. The Queen’s army, under the direction of the BFG, sets off to get rid of the giants. The giants are captured, not without the BFG and Sophie almost joining them, and the world is once again safe. Sophie and the children at the orphanage are asked to live with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, and the BFG goes back to making dreams to give to others as they sleep.
Literary Terms:
(a) Setting: England, London city and giant country, 1980s.
(b) Pont of View: The story is told from the third person.
(c) Conflict: Sophie and the BFG versus other evil giants.
(d) Climax: Sophie and the BFG succeed in capturing ferocious
Giants. The BFG go back and learnt how to speak properly,
lessoned by Sophie. The BFG start to write essays about
his own past life.
(e) Symbol: Giants – Indicating the cause of struggle between them
and the BFG.
(f) Irony: The BFG struggle with other evil giants, though both of
them are also giant race.
(g) Theme: We can make heart-warming friendly ship between human
and other creatures.
Evaluation:
First, It is shocking that a giant man come to the street and little girl Sophie is kidnapped to the giant world by the giant through the window. At first, Sophie is frightened, but actually, the giant is kind one, different from other giants. In the end of story, The BFG and Sophie succeed in extermination of the giants. I could not expect such a kind giant’s goal is to rid evil giants. That is the biggest shock for me because I guessed they will find the way to make friends with other giants.
Second, I like this book because characters are very original and interesting. Sophie is very strong girl and active even though she does not have her family. And the BFG, who is not as strong as other giants, is very kind and has wonderful ears.
Third, my favorite part of this book is from the BFG talks about what he can hear by using his special ears. Sometimes, on a very clear night, the BFG said, ‘and if I is swiggling my ears in the right direction,’ – and here he swiveled his great ears upwards so they were facing the ceiling – ‘if I is swiggling them like this and the night is very clear, I is sometimes hearing faraway music coming from the stars in the sky.’ I like this part because this story is very beautiful and wonderful even though the BFG cannot speak English correctly. When I read this part, I imagined the song of stars and felt exciting.
Finally, I think Sophie and the BFG will go to some cities and correct the dreams together. And they will try to stop other giants to eat human. I am interested in how they will stop other giants to eat human and how the relationship between Sophie and the BFG will change. Therefore I want to keep reading this book.