The Taste of Kids
Sensory imagery about children usually refers to them in terms related to sweetness and sugary goodness. And, indeed, this is why the Enormous Crocodile is willing to go to such lengths to eat them. The Notsobig One, his companion, expresses a deeply ironic perspective toward the fundamental nature of kids: they “tough and chewy and nasty and bitter.”
Love is the Threat
The Enormous Crocodile puts kids in danger who are only saved at the last minute through intervention of other animals. Ironically, the crocodile that poses no danger to kids—the Notsobig One—does so because he finds children “tough and chewy and nasty and bitter” while the Enormous Crocodile is a threat because he considers them “juicy and yummy.”
Boasting
The central irony of the story is that the Enormous Crocodile brags about his plans to eat kids on the way to town with several animals. These animals later show up in the nick of time to save the kids from a horrible fate which would have happened if only the Crocodile had kept his trap shut.
The Very Hungry Crocodile
The Enormous Crocodile opens the story with his announcement of seeking kids to eat because they are bigger than fish. Therefore, he can satisfy his appetite with less work than what it would take to catch an amount of fish equal to just one kid. Ironically, his plan on increase his hunger rather than satiates it and on two different occasions he complains about being “hungrier and hungrier.”
The Tragic Hero
Ironically, this little tale of a greedy crocodile getting his comeuppance actually has a very strong link to some of the great tragedies of ancient Greek playwrights. The title character suffers a horrifically gruesome death in the end not so much because he boasts of his plans to the wrong animals, but due to a fundamental character flaw that Greek tragedy termed hubris. Hubris is like pride on steroids and just like the tragic heroes of Greek drama such as Oedipus, the Enormous Crocodile is doomed to an unhappy ending because of misplaced pride. In his case, he has an excessive amount of pride at his cleverness and ability to easily trick kids into willingly entering his mouth. It is this pride which allows him to believe he can brag about his plans without any undo consequences. Ironically, however, it turns out that he really has very little to be proud of when it comes to being clever.
