Where It All Goes Down
Fantasy London, Fantasy Giant Country
We don’t know when, exactly, The BFG is set. The book was published in 1982, and the Queen could be Queen Elizabeth II, but her name is never mentioned. In the story, Sophie lives in an orphanage, but there weren’t orphanages in 1982. But she has tasted Coke and Pepsi. How do you put a date on that?
So basically, the book is set in generic England, in an unspecific past, with elements of contemporary and history tied up together with a neat fantasy bow. This way, instead of feeling tied to one particular decade, the story feels timeless, like it could have either happened yesterday or decades ago. Dahl knew what he was doing.
We can’t talk about the setting without bringing up the place that is outside the known world: Giant Country. It’s first described when the BFG is running across it with Sophie in his pocket:
“Soon he was galloping over a desolate wasteland that was not quite of this earth. The ground was flat and pale yellow. Great lumps of blue rock were scattered around and dead trees stood everywhere like skeletons.” (4.3)
Not exactly postcard material. The blue rocks remind us that this is a different world, while the pale, flat land and dead trees reflect the giants who live there. It’s a bare, scary place.
But it does contain elements of magic. There are the blue rocks, and the inside of the BFG’s cave is filled with shelves full of bottles of dreams. The BFG also takes Sophie to nearby Dream Country, a land of swirly mist and (duh) dreams.
Most of the BFG’s magic comes from what he hears, not what he sees. This keeps Giant Country a dangerous place to escape from, instead of a mystical fantasyland where you’d want to go on vacation.
In the end, the humans don’t move into Giant Country. Instead, all the giants move into the human world (or are taken by force in the case of the people-eating ones). The story is about escaping Giant Country and all the dangerous things it stands for. Even though it brings some of those dangerous things (the giants) into the real world. All in the name of not being eaten.