In "Thus I Refute Beelzy", John Collier uses fantasy to illuminate the theme that communication is a necessary for a healthy relationship between people. Small Simon, the protagonist, is a six-year old boy who does not "play with the other children any more." (p302t) How could a child be so eccentric?
            
            
             Small Simon plays "mumbo-jumbo" by himself in the afternoons at his "retreat", where the wasted-long gardens are. (p301b) However, his father, Mr. Carter, cannot accept or agree with his son's make-up game. He forces his son to say that it is "a game of let's-pretend", for Mr. Beelzy is not a real person who Small Simon ought to be addicted playing with. (p304b) Consequently, Small Simon pursues that he believes in the existence of Mr. Beelzy. Therefore, Mr. Carter "[takes] his little son by the nape of the neck." (p305t) This attitude is very abnormal between human beings. The fathers ought to illuminate and listen at the same time, instead of implanting ideas into the children's mind.
            
            
             The author also creates an irony of situation on Mr. Carter to emphasize the lack of communication in his family. Mr. Carter requests his son to call each other "Big Simon and Small Simon", so that it "sounds more like friends," (p302b) On the other hand, he also insists on his own conception of raising his child. There is a hint from their names too. "Big Simon and Small Simon" undergoes an idea that Mr. Carter wants his son to be like a shadow of his own; he hopes that his son can be just like him because he thinks he is authoritatively perceptive. Conversely, Small Simon thinks that the "game of let's-pretend" is the way they calling each other "Big Simon and Small Simon". This situation states that communication is more than just naming each other but understanding of the deepest conceptions in one...