Comprehension
Oral Activity
Retell the story in your own words. You may find the text bits below helpful. Try to retell the story both with memory triggers and without them.
Text bits
To keep the children away... He also put up a... The only people who were pleased... To everyone except the Giant... One morning the Giant heard... The children were... When the little boy saw.... The children came back... The Giant longed for... When the Giant was old, he thought... On the little child's return... The little boy explained that his injuries ... The Giant's body was covered...
Adjectives
How important do you think the adjectives are in the story? Write down adjectives that are used when Wilde describes the time when the children were shut out of the garden and when they were let in again. What is the difference?
The Fairy Tale Genre
- This short story contains many elements that we usually find in fairy tales. Can you give examples?
- Fairy tales often have a moral. What is the moral in this story?
Discuss
- When the boy came back, he had been dead for a while, and he explained his nail marks as "wounds of love". Whom do you think Wilde had in mind when he describes the little boy?
- What can we learn from fairy tales like The Selfish Giant?
- Are fairy tales just for children?