A metaphor can be a very dangerous tool to wield; quite often while you are trying to reference one particular aspect of a thing, myriad other associations and relations spring to peoples' minds and they may well be quite different from those correspondences you intended to summon.  Such is definitely the case with The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes--once England's poet laureate, now best remembered, albeit unfairly, by angry feminists as the husband who drove Sylvia Plath to her grave.  Hughes tells the amiable story of a huge metal robot who crashes to Earth and after putting himself back together begins to sate his enormous appetite for metal by devouring cars and tractors and the like.  Infuriated local farmers trap him, despite the efforts of one friendly boy named Hogarth.  But the Iron Giant turns out to be quite useful when an enormous space-bat-angel-dragon attacks Earth and demands a tribute of animate matter to consume.  The Iron Giant agrees to battle the monster, vanquishes him and determines that the creature is actually peaceful but was attracted to Earth by man's violence.  The space-bat-angel-dragon agrees to return to space, where his "music of the spheres" has such a calming effect that Earth becomes a peaceful place.

Now the intent of Hughes's original story, as well as that of the very good recent movie which is loosely based on it, is to show the futility of war, violence, etc.  Hughes book was written at the height of the Cold War and the space-bat-angel-dragon can be understood to be the Left's idealized version of the Soviet Union--a threat only because of our own attitudes and actions.  The Soviet Union having been disposed of in subsequent years, the movie makes a more generalized anti-gun, anti-military, pro-nonconformity statement.  But the truly delicious irony in both cases is that the most obvious subtext of the story is at war with the intended central message.  Because, at the end of the day, the Iron Giant is nothing less than Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative come to life and saving the world.  The author's pacifist message and the filmmaker's antiestablishment message are overwhelmed by the powerful metaphorical symbol of a gigantic defensive weapon being the only thing standing between mankind and certain destruction.  How delightful the irony that book and movie basically end up being pleas for the biggest boondoggle in the history of the military-industrial complex.

I liked both book and movie very much.  The film in particular may be the best non-Disney animated feature film ever made.  Obviously the symbolism of the Iron Giant has escaped the control of the storytellers; but the metaphorical ironies merely add an additional layer of enjoyment.

Dorothy C. Judd adds:
Reading The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes made me long for a classroom of young children who would listen wide-eyed to this tale.  He uses such descriptive language that even the laziest listener could picture the Giant, the space-bat-angel-dragon, and the action precisely as Hughes intended.  However, I should add that Hogarth, the boy, though clever, is lost in the shadow of these exciting figures. The story yields infinite possibilities for follow-up writing, drama, and art activities.

But on another level?  As a parable? I would equate the Iron Giant with technology, the space-bat-angel-dragon, come to Earth, with fallen man, human greed, and ambition.  It is not surprising that the contest between the two is by fire and a proposed three rounds, familiar Biblical references.  It is interesting to imagine that the battle cries and war cries of Earth drown out the music of the spheres and that once heard, the "strange soft music" could bring about world peace.

But in either capacity - tall tale or parable - the ending is, though idyllic, too abrupt and unconvincing.

Grade: B + (tall tale); B- (parable)

(Reviewed:12-Mar-00)

Grade: (B+) Orrin C. Judd

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