Roald Dahl expertly crafted his stories to capture the minds of children and adults alike. James and the Giant Peach, published in 1961, is a prime example of this. “James and the Giant Peach” tells the story of James, a child who runs away from his evil aunts along with various insects in a giant peach.
Besides the aspect of the giant peach, insects, and various exaggerated details, this story depicts an ordinary story of a boy living a hard and lonely life and how he overcomes difficult situations. As adults, we too have to overcome situations and try to find hope that things will get better. Dahl projects this need for hope onto his character James multiple times. The first instance of this is when James is given the magical “little green things” and promised that “magical things would start happening to [him]”(Dahl, page 11). Although, he spills the beans, literally, there is hope yet for James when the first peach appears and grows to an enormous size. This spark of hope expands within James as the novel progresses and he finds ways to overcome more and more trials and tribulations. Dahl places hope in the magic beans because which is what adults desire to obtain but sometimes feel that it is something fantastical, or mystical, like the child.
Often as adults we grow out of creativity, or at least we think we do as we become more and more integrated in modern adult life. Creativity is something cherished and some sort of memorabilia from our past lives. Creativity runs in abundance through the characters in Dahl’s novel. We see in the personality of the characters; the Centipede is a jokester who admires his legs and says he has “like a hundred of them” when he really only has 42 (Dahl, 31). We see it Dahl’s creation theory; the “Cloud- Men” reside in the sky with Cloud families and create hailstones and other forms of precipitation to shower down on the world. We also see in the child himself, James; James constantly finds unique ways out of situations. An example of this is seen in chapter 22 when James fashions a balloon out of the giant peach by attaching it to 502 seagulls (Dahl, page 69).
As adults we love to hear fantastical stories that illustrate how much we covet things such as hope, creativity, and even fear. “James and the Giant Peach” tells an ordinary story in an extraordinary way, which is why it is a children’s story; because, clearly only children can benefit from reading a delusion like this.
Dahl, Roald, and Nancy Ekholm Burkert. James and the Giant Peach: A Children’s Story. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1961. Print
Your use of textual examples is really good. I’m wondering if “hope” is really the word you want in your first example. Is it faith in magic and supernatural possibilities or just faith period. I think the idea that we have to imagine James and his world as having a faith and magic powers that actually works is an adult desire to ground belief and make sure it works is interesting. You want thought to be careful that in these conversations you don’t make generalizations about what all adults want. We know no more of all adults than we do of all children.
I used the word hope to mean hope in anything that we wish to happen; whether it be fantastical or realistic. In Jame’s case, he had hope for both fantastical and realistic: He had hope that the magic beans possessed power, and hope that he would be free from his aunts.
I think “faith” or “belief” might be stronger words.