What are the themes in Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant"?

"The Selfish Giant" centers around a giant with his garden and the children who enjoy playing in it. The giant, when he returns to find the children in his garden, drives them out and builds a wall around it. He wishes to enjoy it only for himself.

The key theme in this story is that selfishness is ultimately self-defeating and self-destructive, as these actions result in misery. As the seasons pass, the garden itself remains locked in perpetual winter, with flowers and trees refusing to bloom. When the children return, this winter finally ends.

Up to this point, the moral is a simple one: it is better to share your possessions with others than to keep them for yourself. Generosity creates happiness (both for others and for yourself), while selfishness creates misery.

However, at this point, this story's themes begin to move outside this initial message concerning selfishness to embrace a dynamic that is specifically Christian in its outlook. After the children return to the garden, the giant sees a boy trying to reach for the branches of one of the trees but is too small to reach them. In assisting this boy, he forms a bond with him, though he will later learn that none of the other children knew said child.

After this point, the giant has changed, but the boy does not return until the very end, when the giant is old and dying. At this point, we learn that the child is Jesus Christ. With his appearance, these themes of selfishness and selflessness take on a much more religious and spiritual dynamic, in reference to this Christian vision of salvation.

The main idea of "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde is encompassed by the phrase spoken by the Giant in the story

'I have many beautiful flowers,' he said; 'but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.'

This story is one of the many allegorical tales in which Wilde infuses parables in order to imitate the way that Jesus would have combined a message with a story.

Although Wilde was not conventionally a religious man, the elements of rite and sermons were some of the concepts about the Catholic faith that would fascinate Wilde the most.

However, Wilde was particularly interested in the thought of Jesus speaking in parables. Hence, Wilde also uses epigrams and paradoxes in a similar way to cause the same effect of awe and surprise that the Bible would say Jesus used to cause.

"The Selfish Giant" is written following the parable of Jesus and the children, where Jesus tells to allow the children to go to him, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

In the story, a cold and angry Giant lives alone in a castle where a beautiful garden continues to tempt the children to go in and play. After being told off by the giant, the children cease going and the garden quits blooming, turning into an eternal winter.

The Giant is not at all moved by this until the day when he sees the children entering the garden again, cheering it up. However, it is when a very feeble kid tries to climb the tree that the Giant's heart melts, and he lends the small child a hand to climb the tree. Spring blooms again in his garden, but never sees the child again.

We find out later that the child was Jesus, himself, and that the Giant meets him again when he is about to enter paradise. It is then when he sees that the child has wounds in his hands and feet. The child represents the purity, innocence, and love that Jesus instills in our hearts. That is the thematic connection between children, love and innocence as the saviors of one's heart.

The thematic points are clear; the only way to allow love into your heart is by opening up to it. Another important point is that, although the Giant was unable to love, a miracle occurs in the form of a child (Jesus) showing him the way to find that love. Most importantly, the fact that the Giant allows the love of God into his heart is what, ultimately, leads him to paradise-regardless what his life had been like before.

Hence, "The Selfish Giant" certainly represents an early time in Wilde's literary career, when he was still trying to find himself, and his role, in the literary world. "Selfish Giant" uses religious undertones to convey the message of allowing love to flow into your heart, so that you can learn to love all that is around you.

How does Wilde explore Christian undertones in "The Selfish Giant"?

The Christian undertones in this story are evident from the beginning: the Giant is described as selfish, and given that the story is geared towards children, the narrative makes it quite evident that this unchristian practice is being condemned by the story. Selflessness, the story suggests, will bring spring to the Giant's garden, whereas selfishness will keep it in a perpetual winter. If we are selfish like the Giant, we will feel grumpy and sad and will not be rewarded.

In the second half of the story, however, the Christian undertones are made explicit. The Giant allows one particular child to stay in his garden after he has chased the others away, because the child is crying. When the Giant is kind to this child, summer blossoms in the garden. The Giant looks for this child for many years afterwards but never finds him—until it is revealed that he is, in fact, Christ. The child is wounded, but he tells the Giant the wounds have been caused by love.

The moral of the story is a clear parallel to the Bible verse found in Mark 9:37:

Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.

Jesus states here that anyone who welcomes innocent children in the name of Christ is essentially welcoming Christ himself and will be rewarded for it. At the end of the story, the Giant, who did not know that he was doing a good deed to Christ in the form of a small child, is told that he will be welcome in the garden of heaven, because he made Christ welcome in his own garden.