The Selfish Giant Summary Class 8 Questions Answers NCERT

The Selfish Giant Summary Class 8 Questions Answers NCERT

The Selfish Giant Summary

The Selfish Giant Summary : The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde is all about spreading love. The story starts with the children playing in the garden of this giant. If they were done with school, they would go to play in his garden every afternoon. They would have trees that had rich fruits and there were also beautiful flowers all around it. Sometimes, birds would sing on top of the trees when it was quiet because no one was working in the garden any more.

Once, the Giant went to his friend’s house for seven years. When he came back, the children were scared. But when they saw him playing in his garden, they became sad because no one could play there anymore. The Giant put up a wall around the garden and put up a sign that said “trespassers will be prosecuted.” The children saw this and became really sad because now there was not even a place to play games anymore. They would just wander around on top of the walls of the giant’s garden and often missed how beautiful it looked inside those walls.

Spring was here, and the trees were blossoming with beautiful flowers everywhere. Little birds would sing around them. But in the Giant’s garden, it was still winter because there was frost and snow all over it. When the children weren’t there, birds didn’t come to sing or trees to bloom. Once a little flower bud came out of the ground but when it saw the notice board, it slipped back into the ground and went back to sleep. Soon, snow covered up the grass in its white blanket. Frost painted all the trees in silver color. They invited the north wind who roared wildly all day in the garden. Then hail joined them and he would rattle the roof of the castle often, breaking some slates of your roof.

The Giant was wondering why it wasn’t Spring, but then he heard a sweet music coming from his garden. He found out that the Hail and North Wind had stopped roaring. Then he smelled a wonderful fragrance through the open casement. The Giant jumped out of bed and thought that Spring had finally come into his garden.

Suddenly, he saw that children were coming into his garden through a tiny hole in the wall. The children were sitting on the branches of trees and the trees started to blossom in his garden. The birds were flying everywhere and he could hear them chirping. The flowers also bloomed in a bright and colourful way making it a cheerful place for everyone to be.

The Giant was surprised to see that there was still Winter in one corner of the garden. He noticed a small boy who could not reach the branches of a tree in front of him. Even then, he could not climb it when the branches were lowered towards him. When the Giant saw this, he felt bad because he had been too selfish and wouldn’t let any children play in his garden before.

Once, the Giant broke down the wall that he had built around his garden so that the children could come in and play. The children would get scared when they saw him and Winter would come back to his garden. But this time, the little boy didn’t run away from him. The boy couldn’t climb up a tree, so he started crying. Then, the Giant picked him up and put him on top of a tree. Soon, flowers bloomed again on this tree as thankfulness for what happened before.

When the other children found out that the Giant was not selfish or wicked anymore, they came back. Then Spring came to the garden again with the children. The Giant used to play with them every afternoon, but that little boy never came back again. Years went by and the Giant became old and weak. One winter morning, he noticed a tree in his garden that had blossomed beautifully with white flowers in one corner of it. The tree branches were golden and there was a little boy standing under it!

The Giant was happy when the little boy came to his garden. He noticed that the palms of the little one’s hands were wounded by two nails and he got angry. But then the boy said that those wounds were from love, not from a man with a sword. Later in the afternoon, when some children came to see him, they found him dead under a tree covered in white flowers all over his body.

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NCERT Solutions of The Selfish Giant

Comprehension Check (Page 20)

Question 1: Why is the Giant called selfish?

Answer: The Giant is called selfish because he made it so that children could not play in his garden. A wall was built around it and a sign put up warning people that they will be punished if they are caught trespassing.

Question 2: On one occasion the children said: “How happy we are here!”

Later they said: “How happy we were there!”

What are they referring to in both the cases?

Answer: In the first case, children were happy to play in the garden. They would go there after school and they had a great time playing around the garden.

In the second instance, the children were talking about the garden where they would go and play after school. But when they returned to find that their friend put up a high wall around it, they couldn’t go in anymore.

The children were talking about the Giant’s beautiful garden in both cases.

Question 3: (i) When spring came, it was still winter in the garden. What does winter stand for or indicate here?

(ii) Winter has been presented like a story with its own characters and their activities. Describe the story in your own words.

Answer:

(i) When Spring came, it was still Winter in the garden. In the story, Winter is a bad time when flowers and trees don’t grow. But in this story, there was snow everywhere and cold winds blew all around. But this wasn’t all bad because it made it seem kind of beautiful to read about.

(ii) When Spring came, the trees started to blossom and the birds started to sing. But in the Giants garden, Winter still prevailed. The birds did not sing and the trees forgot to blossom as children did not come to play in this garden. One day, a beautiful flower blossomed from the grass but when it saw notice-board, it felt sorry for children and slipped back into the ground again. Seeing all this, Winter was pleased as there was Snow and Frost everywhere. Snow covered entire garden with her huge white cloak and Frost painted all trees in silver. They invited the North Wind, who was wearing furs. He blew across the garden. The North Wind brought Hail with him, who rattled the roof of the castle for three hours every day. Hail ran around in the garden as fast as he could and breathed like ice when he talked.

Question 4: Was the Giant happy or sad over the state of the garden?

Answer: The Giant was unhappy that Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter did not come to his garden. He wondered why Spring always came later than the other seasons. The Giant was sad because his garden was looking bad because there were no visits by any of the other seasons.

Question 5: What effect did the linnet’s song have over Hail and the North Wind?

Answer: When the Giant heard the linnet sing, he stopped dancing and then he could smell a delicious perfume. He jumped out of bed excited that something good was happening.

Comprehension Check (Page 24)

Question 1: (i) The Giant saw a most wonderful sight. What did he see?

(ii) What did he realise on seeing it?

Answer: (i) The Giant was happy to see the children in his garden. He saw that they came through a small hole in the wall and then sat on the branches of some trees. The trees were happy too, and they blossomed. The Giant was very pleased to see this and he saw that birds sang and flowers bloomed with joy.

(ii) The Giant realised that Spring was late in visiting his garden because he did not let the children play in it. He realised that he had been very selfish when he built a high wall all around his garden and stopped the children from playing.

Question 2: Why was it still winter in one corner of the garden?

Answer: A giant noticed a tree that was still covered with snow and frost. The North wind blew strongly and roared over it. A little boy was standing in front of the tree, who couldn’t climb the branches. But as the child did not touch the tree, winter still prevailed in that corner of the garden.

Question 3: Describe the first meeting of the little boy and the Giant.

Answer: The Giant was mad because he could not get the tree that had snow and frost. He saw a boy who could not get to the branches of the tree, so he put him on top of the tree. Soon it blossomed with joy and birds came to sing on it. The little boy thanked him for helping him by kissing his head gently.

Question 4: Describe their second meeting after a long interval.

Answer: One winter morning, the Giant looked out of the window and thought Spring was asleep. He wondered if he would ever meet the little boy again. Suddenly while rubbing his eyes, he saw a wonderful sight in the farthest corner of the garden where there was a tree covered with white blossoms. The branches were golden and silver fruit hung down from them. Just underneath the tree stood the little boy that he had loved so dearly and who was eagerly waiting for him.

The Giant was happy to see the boy. But he was angry when he saw that the boy’s hands and feet had nail imprints. The little boy said that these were wounds from love, not anger. The little boy said that as the Giant let him play in his garden, he would take the Giant to his garden in Paradise.

Question 5: The Giant lay dead, all covered with white blossoms. What does this sentence indicate about the once selfish Giant?

Answer:”The Giant lay dead, all covered with white blossoms.” The sentence shows that the Giant lived in paradise after his death. He was not selfish or cruel anymore, so he was covered with white flowers in his garden. The white flowers showed that the giant had a peaceful death.

Exercise (Page 24)

Discuss the following topics in groups.

Question 1: The little child’s hands arid feet had marks of nails. Who does the child remind you of? Give a reason for your answer.

Answer: Jesus Christ hurt himself and forgave those who hurt him. The marks of nails on the child remind us of Jesus Christ. When the Giant met the child again, he noticed that there were marks like nails on his palms and feet. This made the Giant angry and he cried out loudly asking who had done such harm to the little boy. We should remember Jesus Christ when we see these marks because he did this for humanity-he died for us and forgave those who hurt him too. Likewise, the little boy in the story told the Giant that these marks were the wounds of love.

Question 2: Is there something like this garden near where you live? Would you like one (without the Giant perhaps) and why? What would you do to keep it in good shape?

Answer: There is a park near my house. It has big trees with flowers and fruits on it. There is also a running track in the park. People come for walks in the morning or evening. Near the running track there are swings and slides for children to play with each other. I like gardening, so I planted some new plants recently which I water when I go to the garden. Nobody should tramp on plants or grass unnecessarily when they are in this park, because that would hurt them!

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