The Selfish Giant Summary

The story is about a giant who after a seven year visit with his friend, returns to his garden and scares off the children who had adopted it as their own. Of course, all actions have consequences, the giant would soon learn. Because of the giant's selfishness, spring did not come to his garden, nor did autumn. Finally, the giant realizes that the children are what had kept the garden alive when he awakens to the sweet song of a bird, and peers out his window to see the children, who had snuck in through a hole in the wall he had constructed to keep the garden to himself. There was one little boy who was to small to get in a tree, and that tree was still miserably stuck in winter. But the giant had realized his wrong-doing, and helped the boy into the tree. The giant chopped down the wall, and the children would be allowed to visit the garden whenever they pleased. The giant grew old, and wondered constantly about the little boy, for he had disappeared after that day. Then, one winter day the giant saw the little boy under the tree again and rushed to his side. The little boy had scratches on his hands and feet, which he confided were the wounds of love, before taking the giant to his own garden which he called paradise. That afternoon the children arrived to find the giant dead under the tree that the little boy had once been helped to climb.