"End of the line" by Aimee Bender is definitely a strange story but i think it show us a good lesson.
We see in the story from the start to the end, the giant show signs of loneliness. Though it is shrouded by the torturing and abuse he gives the little man, he still is crying for help. The severity of the problem is projected by the author in his size of the man. On one hand because he is big it represent the big problem in his life and the enormous problem for the little man too.
The author describes his longing for a family in several ways. (1) he buys the little man, which gives hints that he wants some company. (2) He puts the little man in a doll house of some sorts that has a couch. This conves the idea that he wants a friend , a home with some one in it and not just himself. Last is (3) He tells the little man to take him to his family, which he kept bugging and bugging him to show where he lived. And he said to the little man at the end " I don't want to harm you!" " I just want to be a part of your society". therefore showing that though the little man was nothing compared to him, but he had something he want much, a family.
I would be interested to hear more in terms of why you found the story to be "strange." I think you make some perceptive observations about the big man, namely that perhaps what he really wants is a family--to feel connected and a part of society. It's interesting that you refer to the big man as a "giant." This seems to suggest that the "abnormal" character in the story may not be the little man, as we are initially led to think, but the big man.
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