The Little Boy Character Analysis

The little boy in the story is Christ in disguise, and he assumes this form so as to offer the Giant a chance at redemption. The Christ Child first appears among the many children who sneak back inside the Giant’s garden through the hole in the wall, anonymous in the crowd. He is singled out not by his divine nature, which he conceals, but by the fact that he is the only child not enjoying the springtime. He huddles in the farthest corner of the garden, where the winter weather remains, crying because he is too small to climb the nearby tree. The Giant, eager to atone for his hardheartedness, raises the boy up into the tree—which at once bursts into bloom, as the child kisses his newfound friend. This act is how the Giant demonstrates his goodwill towards the children, and it begins about his reformation—and it happens, unbeknownst to the Giant, according to Christ’s grand design. The idea that all-powerful beings test humankind by disguising themselves as ordinary mortals is a very old one, at least as old as the Greek myth of Baucis and Philemon, an elderly couple who unknowingly host the god Zeus for dinner. The Christ Child’s first interaction with the Giant follows this age-old plot, while also hearkening to the famous Biblical passage, Matthew 25:40: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” It underscores the Christian theme that a person’s behavior towards their neighbor, and especially towards children and the poor, is a metric of their moral standing. At the end of the story, the Christ Child reveals his true identity—the wounds of the Crucifixion appear on his hands and feet, and the tree he had once tried to climb, symbolic of the cross, is transfigured in gold and silver. This is how he shows the Giant that his kindness to the children has redeemed his soul, and after this he welcomes the Giant into Paradise.