The Iron Giant

The introduction of The Iron Man holds an atmosphere of mystery and the great unknown: “How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows” (1). The author provides an immediate admission of his lack of knowledge about the origins of this entity; it is left up to the reader to decide where he came from and what his purpose here on Earth might be. The opening scene is dramatic and dark, with an illustration that emphasizes the blackness of the night, and it fools the reader into believing that the Iron Man might be a menace. Only moments later, the Iron Man steps off a cliff into the sea and breaks apart, demonstrating that he does not yet understand the terrain or even the consequences of gravity. He is entirely new and even innocent.

In the story, the mechanical Iron Man has important experiences with each of the four natural elements: air, water, earth, and fire. In this section, the Iron Man is launched into a natural environment, and The Relationship Between the Natural and the Mechanical follows through the whole story. The first glimpse of the giant is as he sways in the breeze atop the cliff and views the sea as the “wind sang through his iron fingers” (1). When the Iron Man steps forward off the cliff and falls to the sea’s edge, it is a moment of chaos and cacophony, followed by total silence as his parts lay at the bottom. As he reassembles himself, he immerses himself in the sea as he looks for his ear until he is completely covered. In Chapter 2, the Iron Man is lured into the trap and is buried in the earth by the farmers, experiencing yet another natural element that overtakes him. The elements and the Iron Man’s immersion in them demonstrate how the mechanical giant connects with and seemingly learns from the natural world.

Several clues as to the Iron Man’s nature and purpose are given in the opening pages. He seems to have no understanding of his new environment, but this lack of knowledge is actually caused by the fact that he is sentient and still learning. Even his individual parts seem to have their own emotions: “Gleefully [the hand] picked up the eye” (4). The parts are individually alive but also connected and reliant on one another to function properly. The Iron Man rebuilds himself, which is a metaphor for healing and a luxury that humans do not necessarily have. When he breaks, he can simply reassemble and is thus almost impervious to destruction. This is one characteristic the Iron Man holds above humans and other forms of life. When the humans find their farming equipment bitten in half, it becomes known that the Iron Man is not only made of metal, but he also consumes it, further solidifying the possibility that he is somehow alive.

In Chapter 2, the Iron Man encounters humans for the first time, and their response to his existence is fear and anger. They do not see a being with intentions and thoughts; instead, they see only a metal monster with eyes that look like headlamps. To them, he is all machine and nothing like a human. It is Hogarth who starts to see the humanity within the Iron Man, as the Iron Man responds with rage and fear upon being buried. This is a response one would expect from any living thing that is being threatened, cornered, or killed. The farmers do not question themselves or the Iron Man; Overcoming the Obstacle of Judgment becomes the Iron Man’s purpose, even if that was not initially his reason for existing. The theme of The Human Capacity to Be Both Cruel and Kind is best illustrated by the humans’ treatment of the Iron Man and Hogarth’s brave decision to try and understand. These two themes are linked in that judgment leads to cruelty, but once judgment is overcome, kindness can emerge. Hogarth initially responds to the giant in the same way as the farmers and is the one who successfully traps him, but he is also the first to feel guilt, which is the first step in overcoming his initial judgment of the Iron Man.

Ted Hughes’s writing style is reflective of his poetic instincts, and his tendency to play around with words and various poetic devices brings the story to life. In describing the appearance of the Iron Man’s head, he uses two contradicting objects to form the simile, one of which is small, the other of which is large: “His great iron head, shaped like a dustbin but as big as a bedroom, slowly turned to the right, slowly turned to the left” (1-2). He draws on familiar household objects that any reader would know but does so while describing something very otherworldly. Each of the Iron Man’s individual movements is described in the first chapter, as Hughes pays close attention to explaining just how unusual the Iron Man and his mechanics really are. He repeats phrases like “great iron” in describing the Iron Man’s parts, drawing on feelings of wonder.