The Selfish Giant Summary & Notes - CBSE Class 8 English It So Happened

Summary of The Selfish Giant

Chapter 3 of the Class 8 English Supplementary Reader – It So Happened, consists of a prose – The Selfish Giant, which is about a selfish giant and a young boy who was a messenger of God. Does the selfish giant ever change after his encounter with the young boy? Read the prose summary of CBSE Class 8 English Prose Notes – The Selfish Giant in CBSE English Notes Class 8 format here to discover what happens in the story. We hope this summary will help students to get a detailed understanding of the chapter and prepare for their English exam with confidence.

Students can also improve their writing section for the English exam by practising essays on various topics.

CBSE Class 8 English The Selfish Giant Summary

The Selfish Giant is a beautiful tale of spreading love written by Oscar Wilde. The story begins with the children playing in the beautiful garden of the Giant. They used to come to play in his garden every afternoon after returning from school. The garden was a lovely place with trees bearing rich fruits and beautiful flowers all over. The birds would sing sweetly, sitting on top of the trees.

One day, the Giant returned home from his friend Cornish Ogre’s place after seven years. The children were afraid when they saw him. When he noticed the children playing in his garden, he chased them away and didn’t allow anybody to play there. So, he built a huge wall around the lovely garden and put up a notice board stating that trespassers would be prosecuted. Seeing this, the children became sad as they lost a nice place to play games. They would roam about the high walls of the garden and often missed the beautiful garden inside those walls.

Soon, Spring season began, and the trees blossomed with beautiful and colourful flowers everywhere, and little birds would sing around those trees. But in the Giant’s garden, it was still Winter as there was Frost and Snow all over the garden. In the absence of the children, the birds did not come to sing, and the trees did not bloom in his garden. Once, a small flower bud bloomed out of the grass, but when it saw the notice board, it slipped back to the ground and went back to sleep. In no time, Snow covered up the grass in its white blanket, and Frost painted all the trees in silver colour. They invited the North Wind, who roared wildly all day in the garden. Soon, Hail joined them, and he would rattle the roof of the castle often, breaking the slates of the roof.

Meanwhile, the Giant used to often wonder why Spring didn’t arrive at his garden that year. Neither Summer nor Autumn came, and there was no golden fruit in his garden due to his selfishness. One fine morning as the Giant was lying awake in his bed, he heard sweet music coming from his garden. He noticed that the Hail and North Wind had finally stopped roaring, and he could smell delicious fragrance through the open casement. He jumped out of his bed and thought that Spring had finally arrived in his garden.

Suddenly, he saw that the children had started entering his garden through a tiny hole in the wall. The children who crept in were sitting on the branches of trees, and the trees started blossoming in his garden. He also noticed that the birds were flying everywhere, and he could hear them chirping. The flowers also bloomed in the brightest and most colourful way making his garden a cheerful place for everyone.

To his surprise, he noticed that there was still Winter in one corner of the garden. He noticed that there was a small boy who was standing in front of a tree as he was unable to reach the branches of the tree in front of him. Although the tree lowered its branches towards him, even then, he was too tiny to climb it. When the Giant saw this, his heart melted. He realised how selfish he had been in not allowing the children to play in his garden.

The Giant broke the wall that he had built around his garden so that the children could come and play in his garden forever. The children would get scared whenever they saw him, and Winter would again set in his garden. However, the little boy didn’t run away on seeing the Giant. Unable to climb the tree, he started weeping, so the Giant gently took him in his arms and put him on the top of a tree. Soon, the tree blossomed again. As a gesture of thankfulness, the little boy kissed the Giant’s cheek.

When the other children realised that the Giant was not selfish or wicked anymore, they came back. Again Spring returned to the garden along with the children. Thereafter, the Giant used to play with the children in his garden every afternoon, but that little boy was never seen again. Many years passed, and the Giant became weak and old. One winter morning, he noticed a tree that had blossomed with lovely white flowers in one corner of his garden. The tree branches were golden, and the little boy was standing under it.

The Giant was very happy upon seeing the little boy in his garden. He noticed that the palms of the child’s hands had prints of two nails and were wounded. The Giant got angry on seeing this, and he said in anger that he would slay the man with his sword who harmed the little one. To this, the boy replied that these were the wounds of love. The boy smiled and invited the Giant to come to his garden, which was paradise. Later in the afternoon, when the children came to the garden, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, covered with white blossoms all over his body.

Conclusion of The Selfish Giant

The chapter – The Selfish Giant dwells on the message that we should not be selfish and try to be open-minded and spread love among others and make everyone around us happy. Presenting the CBSE Class 8 English, It So Happened Prose Summary of The Selfish Giant will help students to have a complete understanding of the chapter.

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