The Giant

＂The Giant＂ is a satirical tale about a leader and his followers, people who

blindly follow him for their own positions.

The main character is the Committee Secretary in a small town. Thanks

to his sycophantic behavior, the reader encounters numerous hilarious

scenes in the novel. The Committee Secretary wants to give the leader’s

name to all kindergartens, schools, and other institutions. Of course, the

leader deserves to have even the main street in the city named after him,

but there are no streets long enough, so neighboring villages are annexed

to the city. Many buildings are demolished to make way for this street.

He wants to erect a huge monument to the living leader in the center of the

city, so he orders the demolition of museum buildings and other cultural

and historical sites. When the sculptor finished the monument, news

arrived that the leader’s hand had been amputated, causing panic. The

sculptor found a solution, he also amputated the hand of the monument.

They invited the leader to unveil the monument himself. That’s when they

saw that he had been fitted with an artificial hand. They wanted to return

the hand to the monument, but it ended up in the trash and was swept

away by the river in a big flood. When they realized they couldn’t add a

hand to the monument, they decided to bury it. The burial took place at

night, in secret. Representatives of the city authorities believed that the

leader’s monument could not be buried without appropriate speeches and

a funeral march, so the burial turned into a real comedy.

These are just the most striking scenes from the novel.