The plot starts out with the protagonist, James Trotter (then 4 years old), living with his parents in a glamourous cottage by the sea of Dover, in southern England. Until both of James parents were killed during a London shopping trip (by a freed rhinoceros). As a result, he is forced to live with his two aunts, Spiker and Sponge. The two aunts labored James, like the Ugly Stepsisters’ actions towards Cinderella, for nearly four years. When those years pass, James, walking down the street after an argument with his aunts, stumbles across an odd stranger that gives him magic “crocodile tongues” which, when drunk with water, grants him eternal happiness. He obliges to take them, then proceeds to go to his aunts’ home. On the way to the house, he accidentally spills the “tongues” onto a barren peach tree, which then grows a peach tree the size of a …show more content…
When the event comes, Spiker and Sponge task James to pick up rubbish that the guests drop. Upon doing so, he sees a tunnel and explores it, only to find the center of the peach inhabited by a gang of human-sized invertebrates. As James proceeds to climb into the center, the Centipede, one of the invertebrates, severs the stem of the peach. As a consequence (or reward, depending on the how one looks at the situation), the peach rolls down the hill, crushing and killing the two aunts in the process. The peach rolls through towns, through a famous chocolate factory, and plops in the Atlantic Ocean, floating towards the U.S. The group, still in the peach pass through various events, and baits the Earthworm into luring 500 seagulls to the peach/ which they tie to the broken stem as a source of flight. After the strings to the seagulls get cut by an airplane, the Giant Peach lands on top of the Empire State building, in New York City. One can only wonder what happens next… read the book to find