The Iron Giant

The Iron Man (published in the United States as The Iron Giant) is a science fiction-fantasy novella by Ted Hughes, illustrated by Tom Gauld (in 2005), and originally published in 1968. Ted Hughes was a prolific poet (“Wind,” “Theology”) and author of both adult and children’s literature. The Iron Man is a unique examination of The Relationship Between the Natural and the Mechanical while also exploring The Human Capacity to Be Both Cruel and Kind. The way the Iron Man is initially treated by the humans who discover him and how he overcomes this prejudice demonstrates Overcoming the Obstacle of Judgment. In 1993, Hughes wrote The Iron Woman, a sequel to The Iron Man that focused on environmental themes such as pollution and the destruction of habitats.

The Iron Man has been reprinted several times with different artists interpreting the story. The original UK edition of the story was illustrated by noted illustrator and cartoon George Adamson, while the first North American edition featured art by Robert Nadler. An award-winning 1985 edition included illustrations by Andrew Davidson. In 2019, a new UK edition had Chris Mould as the illustrator. In 1999, Warner Brothers released an animated version of the story called The Iron Giant, which was directed by Brad Bird and featured the vocal talents of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., and Vin Diesel. While the film was not a commercial success due to a lack of marketing, it was highly praised by critics and remains a fan favorite.

This guide utilizes the 2005 CPI group edition of the novella.

Plot Summary

A mysterious and massive Iron Man with unknown origins stands atop a cliff overlooking the sea and scans it with his glowing eyes. He steps off the cliff and barrels down into the rocks below, separating into several pieces. Seagulls pick up an eye and a hand, and those parts join together to find the others. The Iron Man reassembles himself, missing only an ear, and then plunges into the sea.

Sometime later, a boy named Hogarth is fishing one evening when he sees the Iron Man staring down at him from the top of the cliff. Terrified, Hogarth runs home to his family and tells them what he saw. Hogarth’s father, who is a farmer, alerts other farmers in the area. Some believe him, and some do not. He spots a tractor that looks half-eaten and drives home through the rain. On the way, he is met by the Iron Man, and he drives into the Iron Man’s foot to knock him over and escape. The next day, the farmers complain that their equipment is destroyed or gone, and all of them notice giant footprints leading back to the cliff and down to the sea. They decide to dig a gigantic hole and fill it over with a thin layer of dirt to attempt to trap the Iron Man. After three days, the Iron Man never appears, and the farmers give up. Hogarth decides to use the trap to catch a fox and sees the Iron Man eating barbed wire fences. He lures the Iron Man by clinking a nail and a knife together, and the Iron Man falls into the hole. Unable to escape, the Iron Man is trapped, and the farmers bury him. Hogarth starts to feel guilty about what happened to the Iron Man.

The next spring, a hill has formed over the Iron Man. A family comes to picnic on the hill one day and feels the ground shake below them. The Iron Man emerges, creating a crack in the ground and sending the family screaming in fear. The Iron Man escapes his prison and begins eating whatever metal he can find. The farmers find him resting and decide he is a monster who must be stopped. They want to call in the army’s support, but Hogarth suggests taking the Iron Man to the junkyard instead. He convinces the Iron Man to trust him and leads him to the junkyard, where the Iron Man happily sits and eats all the metal he could want. Hogarth befriends the Iron Man and visits him regularly.

One strange night, a star in the sky appears to expand in the sky, and it soon becomes clear that it is coming toward Earth. It speeds toward the planet and then stops and hangs in space, at which point a dark, bat-like dragon comes from within it and flies down to Earth. It lands on Australia, covering the continent, and demands to be fed living things, or it will consume everything. The people of Earth come together with their armies to fight it off, but none of their weapons work against the massive beast. Hogarth asks the Iron Man for help, and the Iron Man agrees when he realizes he needs humans to survive so they can keep creating metal.

The Iron Man is shipped to Australia in pieces and reassembled. He challenges the monster to a strength contest, and if he wins, the monster will be enslaved by him forever. The dragon laughs, believing it can easily win, and agrees. The Iron Man lies down in burning flames to prove his might, bewildering and scaring the monster. The Iron Man then urges the dragon to fly into the sun and sit there, and the dragon does so. When it returns, it is badly burned. The Iron Man lies down in the flames again, worried he might melt but holding his ground. Afterward, he challenges the dragon to sit on the sun a second time. When the dragon returns, he is defeated and badly injured. The Iron Man asks what the dragon can do for him, and the dragon reveals itself to be a star spirit that can sing with the voices of the universe. The Iron Man orders the star spirit to encircle Earth with its song for all eternity, and peace comes to the entire planet as a result.