The Iron Giant

The Iron Man’s character and the conflicts he experiences with the humans are representative of The Relationship Between the Natural and the Mechanical. When the Iron Man is discovered in the first section, the humans immediately get to work trapping and then burying him, never thinking twice about whether he is actually a danger or even if he might be able to help them somehow. The humans viewed the mechanical as unnatural, and they set about removing any threat that it represented. In this section, the Iron Man is found underneath a massive hill that formed over his body, sitting in wait for the moment to emerge again. He has become almost part of the earth itself but does not decompose as a biological creature would. Over time, the Iron Man is all but forgotten, and many newcomers don’t even realize that he is there. When “the Iron Man free[s] himself from the pit” (30-31), he reemerges from a sort of death because his presence was not known, and he was unable to act because he was buried under a mound of earth. Breaking free from the hill is the second of the Iron Man’s renewals; the first occurs when he falls off the cliff and puts himself back together. Despite the humans’ efforts, the Iron Man cannot be stopped and does not have the burden of running out of time to be concerned about. The natural world does not appear able to vanquish him.

The relationship between the humans and the Iron Man begins to change to one of mutual understanding, but only because of the efforts of Hogarth, who dares to overcome The Obstacle of Judgment and attempt to understand the Iron Man. When the Iron Man is taken to the scrapyard, he acts like a happy child, satisfied entirely by the simple act of eating metal. He is endearing, vulnerable, and easily pleased, as long as a person is willing to take the time to figure out how: “There were delicious crumbs of chrome on it. He followed that with a double-decker bedstead and the brass knobs made his eyes crackle with joy. Never before had the Iron Man eaten such delicacies” (33). Hogarth’s choice to help the Iron Man links to the theme of The Human Capacity to Be Both Cruel and Kind. Earlier, he witnessed human cruelty when he saw the Iron Man buried under the hill without any attempt to understand or communicate with the creature. He even participated in it by luring the giant into the trap. In this section, however, Hogarth, who has been left feeling sorry and guilty about the burial, takes a different stance when the Iron Man reemerges. He reconsiders his previous judgment of the giant and instead chooses to be kind, leading the Iron Man to a perpetual feast of scrap metal and creating a scenario where the Iron Man may wish to return the kindness.

The most dramatic shift of the story occurs when the star spirit starts making its way toward Earth and lands on Australia. The words “everybody was talking about it” are repeated twice (37), emphasizing the way this news circulated around the globe, affecting all people everywhere. Prose that describes this dreadful and doubly mysterious creature is detailed and full of vivid imagery: “Terribly black, terribly scaly, terribly knobbly, terribly horned, terribly hair, terribly clawed, terrible fingered, with vast indescribably terrible eyes, each one as big as Switzerland” (41). Humans come together for the first time in history in an attempt to defeat it, but their lack of success leads a desperate Hogarth to seek the help of the Iron Man. In opposition to the Iron Man, the star spirit consumes life, while the Iron Man consumes the waste that human life leaves behind. The Iron Man’s decision to become “champion of the earth” and defeat the star spirit demonstrates his willingness to forgive and to self-sacrifice (46), which none of the humans but Hogarth seemed willing to do. Only he and the boy have overcome The Obstacle of Judgment. The introduction of the dragon creature allows for a unique and compelling blend of science fiction and fantasy and creates the unlikely circumstances of a giant metal man competing against an ancient spirit of the stars.