The Irony of Censorship
The opening line of the story situates Billy’s mother as the ruling authoritarian censor in his life by asserting that she told him exactly what he could and could not do. Unfortunately for her, by forbidding entry into the woods behind the house through judicious use of tools of censorship like referring to it as the “Forest of Sin” and creating a menagerie of monsters with outlandish names like Vermicious Knids, she succeeds in stimulating her son’s desire to see enter this forbidden place and see it for himself. Much the same way that protests and bomb threats against theaters screening The Last Temptation of Christ managed to sell out theaters instead of emptying them.
Facing One’s Fears
As much as his mother’s stories about the woods stoke Billy’s curiosity, it is also quite clear that she has succeeded in spooking him. When he first enters the “Forest of Sin” it is described in imagery that successfully conveys this impact upon him. The forest is so dark it seems to blot out the sun, haunted by an ominous silence and contrives the image of “being among the dead men” in a giant church. Once Billy meets the Minpins, he also learns of the existence of a real monster called the Gruncher which terrorizes the Minpins. By the time Billy leaves the forest, he has not just faced his fears by entering the woods, but conquered his fears by killing the Gruncher.
Collaboration
The Gruncher is a ravenous beast who rules over the creatures of the forest like force from hell. According to the leader of the Minpins, the Gruncher has eaten hundreds of human and millions of his own species. His presence alone is why the Minpins have been forced to live in the trees. With no way to actually combat the Gruncher, the rest of the forest creatures have become social collaborators relying upon each other simply to exist. The collection of food requires a systematic collaborative effort by all the adult Minpins with the assistance of birds acting as their means of transportation. Billy will become the ultimately collaborator by riding on the back of swan to do finally kill the Gruncher. This symbolism here must be inevitably connected to the collaborative efforts of the Allies to defeat the Nazis during World War II in light of Dahl’s experiences as a fighter pilot.
Imagination
The overarching theme that unifies all individual threads together is expressed in the final words of the book. It is a wholesale direct address by the author to his young readers (and any parents who may be reading) to recognize and embrace the power that an active imagination gives them. The final page pleads with readers to always be watching the world around with them because there are wonderful secret places they will never discover if they close to eyes to possibility of magic. Billy is the representative figure of what is possible when the world is viewed this way while his mother represents what happens to those who lose their, ignore or censor this power.
