Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
You can’t have a story about giants without size gags. Readers need to imagine what it looks like when a person and a giant become friends, and boy, does Roald Dahl deliver. During her time in Giant Country, Sophie…
- Sits on the BFG’s table, like a piece of food
- Hides behind a bitten-off spit-chunk of snozzcumber
- Travels in both the BFG’s pocket and his ear
- Spends a few scary seconds inside the Bloodbottler’s mouth. Gross
Once the BFG visits the Queen, the opposite happens—people try to entertain a too-large giant. Mr. Tibbs, the butler, keeps coming across new obstacles:
“At this point, Mr. Tibbs suddenly realized that in order to serve the BFG at his twelve-foot-high grandfather-clock table, he would have to climb to the top of one of the tall stepladders.” (20.37)
Mr. Tibbs figures it out on the job, but he’s not having the best morning.
These moments add humor to the story, but some of the early moments where Sophie is in danger are less funny. They’re more about how the odds are stacked against her. She’s so small compared to the giants that she could be crushed like an ant.
This focus on size raises the question of how she’s going to survive, and keeps that question at the forefront of our minds in case we’re getting too distracted by an interesting BFG/Sophie discussion. That makes size in this book a big deal. (Heh heh…)