Ted Hughes The Iron Man Analysis

Ted Hughes wrote more books for children than collections of original poetry for adults. The role of this writing in his literary life for adults is complex and various. There was certainly a financial incentive. He wrote to his brother in 1957 that “we should all earn our fortunes on it” (Middlebrook, p. 97.) and at least in the 1960s he not only published more books for children than for adults, but the children’s books had longer print runs. But it was by no means a cynical venture. Writing for children and the related activity of encouraging writing by children were central to what might be called his ideological project. He wrote in his essay “Myth and Education” that “Every new child is nature’s chance to correct culture’s error”. Both the seriousness and the delight of writing for children are beautifully manifest in his highly praised book The Iron Man: A Children’s Story in Five Nights, written as a bedtime story for his own children. Lissa Paul in her article ‘A

The Iron Man was first published by Faber & Faber in 1968 and later in 1985 Andrew Davidson gave illustrations to this book. After the death of Ted Hughes in 1998, the book had been considered as one of the great classics of British Children’s Literature, the book is still now heavily read and acclaimed. But in America the book was published under the title The Iron Giant in order to avoid the confusion with Marvel Comics’ character Iron Man. In 1989 Pete Townshend released a musical rock adaptation: The Iron Man: A Musical, though the review was negative. The book was adapted in a film version under the title of The Iron Giant in 1999 directed by Brad Bird, released as a major ‘motion picture’ by Warner Brothers. In this essay I shall discuss one of the devices Hughes uses in The Iron Man to revitalize the human spirit directly connected to his own being. Though he has asserted that the human being is not central (we live in a