He had been once more nominated for the prize in 1978, but he would only receive it at his second nomination, five years later (Wands, 2010). Several of his works were adapted to television and the big screen.
4. Dahl's Matilda
Matilda is one of the most representative works for Roald Dahl for several reasons. First, it is part of the series addressed to children. Then, it has been so well received by the public that it was put into film in 1996. Finally, it is inspired from the author's own life and experiences at the boarding school. Matilda is as such the story of a young girl, Matilda Wormwood, with high intelligence, who is neglected by her parents that force her to watch television, and abused by her teachers, mainly Miss Trunchbull. Miss' Trunchbull's niece, Miss Honey appreciates Matilda's intelligence, but her efforts to move the young girl to a more advanced class are impeded by her ruthless aunt. As Matilda discovers her telekinetic powers, she plays a trick to convince Miss Trunchbull to return the estate she had stolen from her niece. At the end of the book, Matilda's family moves and leaves her with Miss Honey (Dahl, 2004).
The story presented in Matilda is an apparently sad one, and parents might feel reluctant to reading it to their children or to encouraging them to read it. In spite of this perception nevertheless, the
As it has been mentioned throughout the previous pages, Dahl' inspiration for his children's stories came from his own life, namely his experiences while at boarding school. At that age, he simply could not understand how an adult could be so cruel and unfair to a defenseless child. These feelings gave birth to books such as Matilda in which the young rebel against the cruel matures.
Another source of inspiration was constituted by the author's own mother. He recollects how she would tell him and his siblings stories of her home town in Norway. "The young Roald loved stories and books. His mother told Roald and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures. "She was a great teller of tales," Roald said, "Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten" (Infloox, 2009). As a tribute to her, he even constructed a character in her honor (the grandmother in The Witches).
Then, aside mother and school, Dahl's work was also influenced by the classic writers. Like Matilda, young Dahl enjoyed reading, and he early on began to read the works of classics. So many of his later stories are inspired from Rudyard Kipling's or Charles Dickens's writings.
Many adult readers disagree with the portrayed unreality of Dahl's books because in life everything is not fair, and good does not always win. Even when the hero of the Witches is permanently turned into a mouse, the reader is assured by the main character that, "I honestly don't feel especially bad about it. I don't even feel angry. In fact, I feel rather good" This lack of remorse is
In spite o the accusations of being a misogynist and encouraging the young minds to embrace such theories related to gender stereotypes, Polly and Diggory, the first two children to populate the series, are far from impersonating stereotypes. Polly appears to be a smart and sensitive young girl, wiser to some degree than her friend, Diggory. In opposition to the children who regardless of their gender, seem to share similar
Finally, I loved the ending and its sardonic twist; it is Red Riding Hood who not only kills the wolf, but then kills the remaining pig and has him made into a traveling case. While the reader naturally believes that Red Riding Hood is there to help the pig, she in fact is more dangerous than the wolf she was called in to kill. As the poem says, "Ah, piglet
Clearly, a child's tendency to over-indulge is seen as something that must be curtailed. Finally, we have the Oompa Loompas - our Greek chorus. After each tragedy befalls one of the children or their parents (or both) the Oompas recite a poem. "Dear friends, we surely all agree / there's almost nothing worse to see / Than some repulsive little bum / Who's always chewing gum." These poems seem to
4. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps Figure 8. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps' "The Monkey Painter," 1833. (Source: http://dalihouse.blogsome.com/2007/04/26/beasts-get-the-babes Figure 9. ( Source: http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Image:The_Experts%2C_1837_by_Alexandre-Gabriel_Decamps.jpg) Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was an artist who often used animals portrayed as human beings to satirize society and especially the formal artistic community of the time. He was opposed to falsity and pretentions and the often biased views of the academic art coterie of the time was a subject of some of his works. This can be
In fact, he stresses that these stories should be read without any commentary about the possible unconscious content. "Fairy tales can and do serve children well, can even make an unbearable life seem worth living, as long as the child doesn't know what they mean to him psychologically" (Bettelheim 57). This destroys the story's enchantment. More recently, different authors have returned to the earlier usage of fairy tales, or conveying