Roald Dahl cont.

The following information about Roald Dahl comes from the website stated below:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

In the crash Dahl had fractured his skull, and said later: "You do get bits of magic from enormous bumps on the head." While he was recovering from his wounds, Dahl had strange dreams, which inspired his first short stories.
The only stageplay Dahl ever wrote, THE HONEYS, failed in New York in 1955. After showing little inclination towards children's literature, Dahl published JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961). It was first published in the United States, but it took six years before Dahl found a published in Britain. James and the Giant Peach was followed by the highly popular tale CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1964), which has inspired two film adaptations. The story dealt with one small boy's search for the ultimate prize in fierce competition with other, highly unpleasant children, many of whom come to sticky ends as a result of their greediness. It presented the central theme in Dahl's fiction for young readers: virtue is rewarded, vice is punished. In the end the fabulous chocolate factory is given to Charlie, the kind, impoverished boy. THE WITCHES (1983) won the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1983. The judges described the book as "deliciously disgusting". Later Felicity Dahl collected her husband's culinary "delights", such as "Bird Pie", "Hot Frogs", and "Lickable Wallpaper" in Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes (1994).

Study Guide for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Chapters 1-6

• Identity is a major theme that Alice faces
• There are three major types of identity:
• Physical: size changes
• There are 8 major size changes in the first six chapters
  
• we see a fractured/split personality of Alice through these changes
• Internal: knowledge/way of thinking
• Alice tries to recite things she knows to see if she is still the same person; nothing is correct when she does this
• Alternative Perspective: views of other characters
• the White Rabbit calls Alice Mary Ann, which translates to mean a servant girl
• the Caterpillar asks her "Who are you?"; Alice doesn't know the answer to this question
• the Pigeon calls her a serpent because of her long "serpent" like neck
• the Cheshire Cat calls her mad
• Alice becomes able to control her size changers in chapter 5 with the mushroom
  

April 11, 1994

The following is another story I wrote when I was five.

Once upon a time, there was three pigs, three wolves. They were nice. The pigs thought the wolves were not their friends. The pigs found out they were their friends. The end.

I believe the three pigs could be considered my brother, our friends, and I. The wolves could represent a few of the neighbors that we were not as close to as the rest. Growing up my brother and I were very close to the other kids that lived in our neighborhood. We were always together getting into some sort of trouble, or what we considered trouble. I think this story is talking about some of the kids that lived on my street that would never play with us, so we thought they didn't like us. Eventually they joined us, every once in a while, and we learned that they thought we didn't like them either. We all then realized that we were friends and hung out more often.

More Background Information on Roald Dahl

The following information about Roald Dahl is taken from the following cite: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

"Parents and schoolteachers are the enemy," Dahl once said. "The adult is the enemy of the child because of the awful process of civilizing this thing that when it is born is an animal with no manners, no moral sense at all." In WITCHES (1973) behind the mask of a beautiful woman is an ugly witch, and in MATILDA (1988) Miss Turnbull throws children out of windows. Both parents are eaten in JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961), but the real enemies of the hero of the story, a little boy, are two aunts.
At eighteen, instead of entering university, Dahl joined an expedition to Newfoundland. Returning to England he took a job with Shell, working in London (1933-37) and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1937-39). During World War II he served in the Royal Air Forces in Libya, Greece, and Syria. He was shot down in Libya, wounded in Syria, and then posted to Washington as an assistant air attaché to British Security (1942-43). In 1943 he was a wing commander and worked until 1945 for British Security Co-ordination in North America.

January 27, 1994

This is another story i wrote when I was five.

Once upon a time there was a big bad wolf. He lived behind the bowling alley. Then there was a brother pig. Then there was a sister pig. Then there was a daddy wolf. then there was a mama wolf. Then they played across the fence.

When I was younger I had quite the imagination. I thought there was a "big bad wolf" that lived behind the bowling alley. There were always cats rustling in the bushes; so this is where the "big bad wolf" came from. The brother pig is my brother and the sister pig is me. I am not sure who the daddy and mama wolf are; they may be my parents. I was at the day care that was next to the bowling alley when the pigs are playing across the fence with the wolves. I'm not sure why they are doing this since we never played with anyone that was across the fence. It may be that my brother and I were playing with my parents outside in the yard.

Some background information on Roald Dahl

The following information was taken from web site: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales, of Norwegian parents. His father, Harald Dahl, was the joint owner of a successful ship-broking business. Harald died when Dahl was four years old, and three weeks later his elder sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. The family had to sell their jewellery to pay for Dahl's upkeep at a private school in Derbyshire. When Dahl was 13 he went to a public school named Repton. His years at public schools in Wales and England Dahl later described without nostalgia: "I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely. I couldn't get over it. I never got over it..." (from Boy: Tales of Childhood, 1984) Dahl especially hated the matron who ruled the school dormitories. These experiences later inspired him to write stories in which children fight against cruel adults and authorities. "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended," one of Dahl's English teachers commented.

Study Guide for Ella Enchanted

• Ella's obedience curse makes her the character she is
• Ella realizes curse at her 5th birthday party
• Ella feels like a puppet at finishing school
• Ella is a rebel and fights the curse
• Mandy thinks the curse can be broken but she cannot break it
• Ella can't break the curse for her own joy
• Ella is able to stay in her room for a few moments after her mother dies
• Ella is going to be the ogres dinner in chapter 14
• Not able to be Areidas' friend
• Ella is "good" because the curse makes her obedient
  
• Ella is strong willed, independent, and rebellious
• Ella is obedient but isn't commanded to go to finishing school
• Defeats the ogres on the way to finishing school by having everyone scream
• Olive must be slapped by the coachman before she stops screaming
• The prince is friendly to Ella
• Sir Peter the merchant, tells Ella that he sells things because he is a merchant.
• Don't get to know Ella's mother figure because she is dead
• Ella is forced out of her house and made Hattie's servant
  
• Fairy godmother doesn't do "big" magic because big magic is destructive
  
• The curse is "big" magic
• magic doesn't fix peoples problems
• Book indicates that we don't need fairies because we are strong enough to help ourselves without them
• Ella and Prince Chars' relationship begins at the beginning of the story
• It is based on respect and sense of humor
• Char is afraid that finishing school will "ruin" Ella; he thinks she is fine the way she is
• Ella is clumsy; partly because of her curse
• Ella is a "fairy friend" meaning that she has a drop of fairy blood in her and she has fairy feet (very tiny)
• Ella has a gift of a knowledge of many languages
• Ella has the desire to dictate her own life; she is intelligent and witty
• Char likes her laughter; she proves to Char that she hasn't changed by telling him the story of Mistress Manners
• Ella forms relationships with all types of characters
• Ella is opposite of her father; she wants to give everyone joy and is not self-centered
• Ella in a sense does not have to be saved from the prince
• Sir Peter considers Ella and her mother possessions
  
• Lucinda turned Ella into a complete puppet
• 2nd half of story we see the traditional Cinderella; the only Catskin part is when she is forced to marry but she can't leave home to escape it
• Ella goes on a quest to find Lucinda
  
• Quest are normally only undertaken by males
• Identity is a major theme-it merges in with the curse: the curse makes her and obedient child, has the potential to become a china doll/puppet, wants to be called Ella; Ellanor is her mother's name, "I'm a merchant, who are you?..", Mandy calls her Lady and a fairy friend, the ogres call her an it and she tells them she is not an it, becomes Cinderella after her father marries, obedient vs. rebel
  
• Char proposes in a letter and Ella tells him no because she doesn't want to put her country in trouble; we see self-sacrifice
• Everything that Ella was afraid of began to happen with Char
• Ella's love for Char was enough to break the curse; she gave him up twice
• Ella refused to become a princess
• love and laughter are the base of their relationship
• 1st person narrator; we get additional knowledge through the contents of the fairy book and the letters between Ella and Char
• The book provided plot and the letters provided characterization
• Ella and Chars' relationship developed the letter, it was still limited
  

Roald Dahl

The following information comes from: "Dahl, Rolald (Vol. 18): Introduction." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon R. Gunton. Vol. 18. Gale Group, Inc., 1981. eNotes.com. 2006. 10 Feb, 2008 dahl-roald-vol-18>


Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916. He is a short story writer, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He is also the author of many controversial and widely read children's books that are considered "cautionary tales for bad children." Dahl's special talent as a short story writer is the integration of the pedestrian and the grotesque in tales that have been likened to Charles Addams's cartoons. Along with Saki, Lord Dunsany, John Collier, and Robert M. Coates, Dahl writes in the tradition of the light fantastic; most all of his tales are marked by a kind of dark humor, sometimes merely wry, other times macabre, and occasionally grisly.

Ella Enchanted

My favorite parts of Ella Enchanted are when Ella “defeats” the ogres. The first time she is able to not be charmed by them is in the carriage on the way to finishing school. Once she realizes what she must do, she takes immediate action and has everyone scream. Hattie, Ella, Olive, and the coachmen save themselves from the ogres because they are unable to hear the powerful and charming words of the ogres. The next time she encounters the ogres Ella is on her way to Uaaxee’s farm to find Lucinda in order to have her curse taken back. Ella tricks the ogres out of eating her by using their own ways of charming people. She encounters Char and his knights trying to capture the very ogres that have Ella under control. She then charms the ogres so they will be under the control of Char and his knights in order that Char might capture them. Once she does this she explains to Char how she has learned to “tame” the ogres.

Study guide for Little Red Ridding Hood and Snow White

LRRH

• one of the most popular fairy tales
• appeared most often in the late Middle Ages in France and Italy
• often a tale of warning
• many cultures believed warewolves existed
• largely agricultural society
• had wildernesses and many people were attacked and killed by humans and beasts
• in most versions the girl outsmarts the wolf
• strong female character
• more happy endings in the oral tales; more sad endings in recorded tales
• warn about different types of preadators
• sexual aspect-young girl is coming of age
• learning and gaining self-assertion
• death of grandmother symbolizes the passing of a generation
• eating the grandmother is replacing her through the girl

Snow White

• absent father figure-many tales men are off working
• classic story of conflict between mother figure and daughter
• beauty is a source of power
• mother trying to eat daughter-trying to absorb her beauty
• step-mother has all the power
• Snow White is the "perfect woman"; she is powerless, useless, and weak
• if father is present he is powerless
• clueless
• does nothing to save herself
  

Study Guide for Fairy Tales

• told for various reasons
• collected by people who heard the stories and wrote them down
• different versions of each in every culture
• unknown when each was originally created
• church considered them heathen
• popular with peasant class and not the upper
• 18th century didn't like them because they are unreal
• told in nurseries as bedtime stories
• 19th century liked their imagination and fantasy
• considered not for adults and only belonged in the nursery
• writers created their own versions based on originals
• perpetuate negative stereotypes of women
• feminist rewrite tales and encourage women not to let their children read them
• used to teach children what authors think is right or wrong
• we absorb the values that are within them
  

Cinderella

My favorite type of the “Cinderella” tales is the "Catskin" versions. My favorite tale of this included in the text is "The Princess in the Suit of Leather." I like this tale because the "Cinderella" figure is a very assertive and active princess. She is very clever and doesn't need a "fairy godmother" to help her solve her problems; she knows what she needs to do in order to escape her marriage to her father. She is very creative in the way that she lets her prince discover her identity. She places the ring she took off of the prince’s finger into the bread cake that she was making for the princes journey. The prince eats the bread and discovers who his princess is.