Censorship
Censorship is designed to keep people from having access to something. The ironic inversion of this strategy—too often played out in pop culture—is that the very act of trying to censor something creates interest. Billy’s mother’s warnings about the woods only increases his desire to explore.
The Forest of Sin
The woods which Billy’s mother forbids him to explore are the location of horror stories about monsters and creatures. It has even been given an ominous name: The Forest of Sin. And yet, ironically, it is home to the seemingly sinless Minpins as much as it is home to the malevolent Gruncher.
Billy Tells the Truth
After his adventure in the woods has established Billy as successfully rebelling against his mother’s oppressive authoritarian rule, Billy is still not completely changed. He is still conditioned to tell the truth when his mom asks a question and, indeed, he does a tell about his experience flying atop a swan. He confesses to his mother his ability to “just fly up into the branches on silver wings.” Even though he has just confessed a truth he didn’t have to and which gives a hint of his extraordinary adventure, his mother immediately and ironically dismisses it as “rubbish.”
“The birds are our cars.”
Despite living within a forbidden forest, the Minpins are apparently familiar with the world of human beings. They manage to get around within a forest in which the Gruncher is always a threatening possibility by using birds as their means of transportation. Despite the familiarity with the world of humans, the leader of the Minpins engages a metaphor that seems ironically misplaced. He compares the use of birds to move around the world to using cars when, it would certainly seem, the more appropriate metaphor here would be airplane.
Little Billy
Billy is introduced by the narrator using the term “Little Billy.” It is a nickname directly traceable to his mother as she uses when it several times. No irony there, of course, as Billy is little both literally and figuratively within her reign. What is ironic is when the leader of the tiny little Minpins starts using the term to refer to a being so much bigger than himself.
