How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
“You is talking rommytot,” the BFG said, growing braver by the second. He was thinking that if only he could get the Bloodbottler to take one bite of the repulsive vegetable, the sheer foulness of its flavour would send him bellowing out of the cave. “I is happy to let you sample it,” the BFG went on. “But please, when you see how truly glumptious it is, do not be guzzling the whole thing. Leave me a little snitchet for my supper.” (9.21)
The BFG has probably never heard the term “reverse psychology,” but he’s definitely good at it. By begging the Bloodbottler not to eat too much of the snozzcumber, he gets the giant to play right into his hands (and right into his really gross vegetable).
Quote #2
“I should like to find a way of disappearing them, every single one.” “I’d be glad to help you,” Sophie said. “Let me see if I can’t think up a way of doing it.” (9.57-58)
Sophie’s eager to stop the giants, but what’s so impressive is how she speaks. She’s totally confident in her ability to come up with a plan, even though the BFG has lived with this situation basically as long as he’s been alive and has never thought of anything. Not every eight-year-old has got that kind of confidence.
Quote #3
He crept on his toes toward the ugly brutes. They were still snoring loudly. They looked repulsive, filthy, diabolical. The BFG tip-toed around them. He went past the Gizzardgulper, the Bloodbottler, the Meatdripper, the Childchewer. Then he stopped. He had reached the Fleshlumpeater. He pointed at him, then he looked down at Sophie and gave her a big wink.
He knelt on the ground and very quietly he opened the suitcase. He took out of it the glass jar containing the terrible nightmarish trogglehumper. (13.20-21)
The narrator takes us through every second of this scene as if it were a comic strip. The BFG lets us (and Sophie) know what his idea is before he acts it out, and gives a big wink to prove it. Payback time.
Quote #4
Sophie was silent for a few moments. Then suddenly, in a voice filled with excitement, she cried out, “I’ve got it! By golly, I think I’ve got it!” (15.34)
Classic “eureka” moment going on here. A lightbulb might as well appear above Sophie’s head.
Quote #5
“How is you going to be sitting on the Queen’s windowsill, may I beg?” the BFG said. “You are going to put me there,” Sophie said. “And that’s the lovely part about it. If someone dreams that there is a little girl sitting on her window-sill and then she wakes up and sees that the little girl really is sitting there, that is a dream come true, is it not?” (15.93-94)
The beauty in Sophie’s plan is she uses every tool at her disposal. She knows the BFG can control dreams, so she uses that as a way to spread the news to the Queen. It’s called making use of your resources.
Quote #6
A man does not rise to become the Queen’s butler unless he is gifted with extraordinary ingenuity, adaptability, versatility, dexterity, cunning, sophistication, sagacity, discretion and a host of other talents that neither you nor I possess. Mr. Tibbs had them all. He was in the butler’s pantry sipping an early morning glass of ale when the news reached him. In a split second he had made the following calculations in his head: if a normal six-foot man requires a three-foot-high table to eat off, a twenty-four-foot giant will require a twelve-foot-high table. (20.2)
Here we meet another impressively clever person: Mr. Tibbs. The super-long list of abilities Mr. Tibbs has (that you and I don’t) is a clue that the next section is going to make him put all those special talents to the test. Let the comedy commence.
Quote #7
“So what you soldiers has to do is to creep up to the giants while they still in the Land of Noddy and tie their arms and legs with mighty ropes and whunking chains.” “Brilliant,” the Queen said. (21.24-25)
When the Queen says your plan is brilliant, it’s a good sign. The BFG has come up with a way to capture the giants without a gory confrontation. Assuming, of course, they stay asleep.
Quote #8
“Then we’re jiggered!” cried the Army General. “This is ridiculous!” cried the Air Marshal. “You must not be giving up so easy,” the BFG said calmly. “The first titchy bobstickle you meet and you begin shouting you is biffsquiggled.” (21.43-45)
The BFG’s “titchy bobstickle” speech could also be called “advice for how to be clever.” First step: don’t give up so quick. The BFG, being smaller than all the other giants, is used to coming up with roundabout ways for keeping out of their way. The Heads of the Army and Navy, on the other hand, have big guns, which translates to not being as used to thinking of creative solutions.
Quote #9
The BFG, knowing what a coward the Fleshlumpeater was, saw his chance. “You is bitten by a snake!” he shouted. “I seed it biting you! It was a frightsome poisnowse viper! It was a dreadly dangerous vindscreen viper!” (21.119)
The BFG is able to outsmart the other giants by using what he already knows about them. For him, it’s all about mind games. Luckily, being bitten by a vindscreen viper is less of a problem than getting tied off and carted off to England by all the Queen’s men.
Quote #10
“What a clever fellow you are,” the Queen said. “You are not very well-educated but you are really nobody’s fool, I can see that.” (22.19)
Gotta love the Queen. She can see past the BFG’s speech to how well thought-out his ideas are. If only our fourth-grade math teacher had seen the light in us that way.