JG Ballard's The Drowned Giant

432 Words1 Page

In “The Drowned Giant” by JG Ballard, the townspeople face a threat to how they understand their own significance, when they discover a dead giant washed up on the shore. In The Drowned Giant, the townspeople knock down the giant because he represents a higher power, and they are scared of the change he imposes. The townspeople not only look up to the giant because he is taller, but they view him as someone better than themselves. One way in which the narrator shows how the townspeople feel about the giant is by comparing him to something classical. “Illustrated in the Grecian features of the face, on which the townsfolk were now sitting like flies.”(p.5). By using “Grecian,” JG Ballard imposes the elegance and timelessness of Greek cultural on the giant. Greek mythology, art, culture and philosophy embody excellence. All of which belong to the giant. The narrator, meanwhile, describes the people as mere flies, a nuisance born in manure. …show more content…

The townspeople are set in their ways and are scared of being dismissed. As the narrator says, “I feared that the giant was merely asleep and might suddenly stir and clap his heels together”(p.2). The townspeople feel so insignificant that they can be swatted away just by the heels, a part of the body not commonly associated with power. The giant is as magical as Dorothy’s red shoes and can click his heels together and change everything. The townsfolk, however, are as small as the munchkins and as annoying as a fly. The townspeople take this fear and turn it into an aggressive hate towards the

Open Document