37 pages • 1 hour read
Roald Dahl, Illustr. Quentin BlakeThe Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1985A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Teamwork Saves the Day
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me’s main characters continually work together to accomplish challenging goals. With Billy, the animals achieve a successful job interview, capture a dangerous thief, and retrieve stolen property; the Duke and the animals team up to share life on his estate; and Billy and the Duke open a candy store with the latter’s funding. Working together, the characters improve their chances at success and reap many benefits, including lasting friendships.
The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company performs its remarkable service through closely coordinated efforts. The Pelican fills his giant beak with cleaning water, then flies to every window needing to be cleaned. The Monkey, riding atop the Giraffe’s head, does the actual cleaning. The Giraffe oversees the entire process and uses her expandable neck to position the Monkey exactly where he needs to be.
The animals befriend Billy, and he joins them when they answer the Duke’s invitation to clean his windows, providing directions and navigating the group to the right address. Billy and the Pelican combine efforts and harvest cherries from the top branches of a Hampshire House cherry tree, then swoop down and present the fruit to the Duke. The three animals work closely together to wash the windows and later corral a jewel thief: The Giraffe quietly notifies the Duke, the Monkey manages the man’s reactions, and the Pelican captures the culprit.
The Duke and the animals agree to live together, with the Duke housing and feeding the trio while they clean his windows and harvest his fruit. The Duke also works with Billy to open up a new candy shop: He provides the funds and remodelers, and Billy manages the store. In working together in these ways, the main characters amplify each other’s efforts. Alone, none of them would be able to accomplish what all of them can do together. The animals’ various unique skills, though remarkable, provide little on their own without the added skills of the others. The Duke's vast wealth also makes little difference unless it’s applied to useful goods and services provided by others.
The most important gift that working together provides is lasting friendships with each other. The Duke asks the animals “to live on my estate for the rest of their lives” (57), and the animals, in turn, tell Billy that they will always be there for him. Teamwork thus builds connections worth even more than the things a team came together to do.
Differences as Strength
Most of the story’s characters are, in one way or another, quite odd, but this makes them more interesting and capable. Their uniqueness gives them abilities they wouldn’t otherwise possess, and these oddities and differences ultimately help them succeed. The Pelican has an unusually large beak that can hold vast amounts of water for cleaning windows. The Monkey is skinny, but his long arms and legs allow him to climb nearly anything—including the Giraffe’s long neck from which he works. The Giraffe can extend her neck; without it, she wouldn’t be able to lift the Monkey to the heights needed to clean the Duke’s upper-story windows.
Furthermore, the Pelican’s upper beak can retract into his head; this odd talent allows him to keep his beak pouch wide open, so the Monkey can reach into it for cleaning water. This trait also lets him hold people and fly them from place to place. The Monkey loves to sing and dance, which could be seen as a distraction—except he does so to advertise his group’s window-washing service.
The Duke has enormous wealth, which is rare, but he uses it to help Billy and the animals do their best and achieve their dreams. His huge mustache and abrupt ways give him a comical air that, far from intimidating others, affords him a certain charm that appeals to those who know him.
Billy has an eccentric goal, to own a candy shop that contains the greatest variety of sweets the world can provide. This odd interest animates Billy’s actions, but he fears others will think little of it and reject it. However, the Duke recognizes Billy’s interest as a unique passion for something that can delight throngs of happy customers: “You just wait and see what sort of a sweets shop we are going to make out of this Grubber place of yours!” (66). The store becomes a great success for its extensive collection of tasty sweets—which wouldn’t have happened without Billy’s love of sweets.
The story suggests, then, that the things that make people odd or different can also be their greatest strengths. The book celebrates each character’s uniqueness—the Pelican’s beak, the Monkey’s limbs, the Giraffe’s neck, the Duke’s eccentric ways, and Billy’s fanciful dream.
Joyful Enthusiasm Gets Results
Each character in the story displays enthusiasm for what they’re doing. This eager energy helps them accomplish their goals. Billy wants to own a sweets shop filled with candies from around the globe. He fixes his eye on an abandoned candy store and imagines running it himself: “Oh boy, what I couldn’t have done with that old Grubber shop if it had been mine!” (8). Even after the store has been sold, he returns to gaze at it and imagine all the ways he would improve it if he had the chance. Billy’s enthusiastic interest in the place leads him to meet the three animals who have moved into the building. He learns of their plans for a window-washing service run from the abandoned candy shop, sets aside his own idea for the moment, and joins them.
Each of the animals is eager to wash windows for a living. The Monkey sings happy songs about how good the service will be; he dances at the mere thought of it. The Pelican sings a happy ditty about his “Patented Beak” that can hold cleaning water all day, and the Giraffe sings a proud song about her extendable neck. The three animals go to the Duke’s windows with cheerful energy, and clean a row of windows with “astonishing” speed. The Duke is delighted: “Remarkable! Incredible! I haven’t seen out of any of my windows for forty years! Now I shall be able to sit indoors and enjoy the view!” (42). He also takes great interest in African wildlife, and is proud to own every food his window-cleaning guests desire. Pleased with the animals’ work, grateful for their help in corralling a dangerous burglar, and exuberant about his knowledge of them, the Duke invites them to live on his estate.
Billy’s eager participation in the animals’ adventure wins him the admiration of the Duke, who funds the boy’s sweets shop idea. Billy oversees the importation of hundreds of boxes of candies, enthusiastically inspecting and testing every box that arrives at the store. The resulting grand opening is a great success. Without his enthusiastic dream of owning a candy store, Billy would have never joined the animals, whose friendship directly leads to the realization of his own dream.
Each of the main characters thus displays an enthusiastic love for what they do, and this positive energy compels them to do their best and succeed at the tasks before them. The animals generate rousing approval of their work from the Duke, and his energetic support for them provides him with an invaluable service and new friends. Finally, Billy’s enthusiastic participation in the animals’ project directly leads to the fulfillment of his own passion.
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