Roald Dahls Childhood Influences on His Most Popular Works free essay sample

Research Paper Chris Gitre Rough Draft M. Garcia Roald Dahl’s Childhood Roald Dahl is one of the 21st century’s most prolific writers. He successfully wrote literature in multiple genres for an array of audiences. His most glorified novels rest in the children’s literature department but some of his most cherished writings can be found in the adult section as well. Time after time, Dahl produced profound novels for his readers. His life was extraordinary and included many prestigious accolades. After serving in the Royal Air Force, Dahl was asked to write fiction for Walt Disney himself. And to this day, remains one of the few Englishmen to turn down knighthood from the Queen of England. But much before these accolades, Roald Dahl grew up with a peculiar childhood; A childhood which influenced his writing style, character development and fanatical plot twists. By including real-life parallels to his characters and novel plots, Dahl creates a relatable and enjoyable reading experience to which the reader is fully immersed into a plausible, yet outrageous fantasy world. Roald Dahl was born on September 13th, 1916 to Norwegian parents, Harald and Sofie Dahl. At the young age of three, Dahl’s father died of Pneumonia. Shortly after that, his mother sent him to British boarding school, essentially making him an orphan. At the boarding school, Dahl faced treacherous authority figures. There the headmasters would instill fear upon the students, threatening and using wooden canes to punish the students for any and every misdeed and school code infraction. Generally an outsider, Dahl was victim to many of these tragic beatings. His teachers rated him as a well below average student, even saying that he reminded them of â€Å"a camel†. Finally, his mother came to the rescue and moved him from the school. After that, Dahl went on to accomplish great feats with in his life. His hit novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sold over 1,000,000 hardback copies and other famed writing, James and the Giant Peach over 350,000. Dahl faced much adversity in his childhood life, but this adversity was the source of inspiration for his massive successes â€Å"James and The Giant Peach†, â€Å"The BFG†, and â€Å"Matilda†. James and the Giant Peach is one of Dahl’s most prolific novels. It sold fewer than half a million copies and in 1996, was released as a Disney film. In the novel, the main character James lives happy with his parents until one day both of the parents are done in by a wild rhino. Newly an orphan, his aunts adopt him and turn out to be treacherous authority figures in his life. One particularly bad day, James stumbles upon a wizard who, mysteriously, knows all of James’ problems. The wizard gifts James a magical potion intended to free James of his worries. However, James trips and spills the potion onto a dying peach plant. Rapidly, a peach begins growing and does not stop until it reaches gigantic proportions. The aunts take advantage of the peach by charging tourists to view it, all the while keeping James locked indoors. One day though, the aunts send James to collect trash left by tourists. Instead of picking up trash, James enters the peach, meets giant insects affected by the potion as well, and flies away with them on a fantastic adventure. Immediately, one notices the parallels between this famed novel and Roald Dahl’s life. Likewise to Dahl losing his father at the age of four, James loses his parents at the exact same age. Furthermore, in the novel, James constantly struggles with evil authority figures in the form of the aunts. Likewise, Dahl faced painful beatings from abusive teachers at his English boarding school. The similarities between Dahl’s childhood and James and The Giant Peach are plentiful. But even further in Dahl’s writings can we see a continuous theme of children facing orphanage and wildly manipulative and brutal authority figures. Published in 1982, â€Å"The BFG† is another successful novel by Dahl and also a fan favorite. Like James and The Giant Peach, â€Å"The BFG† was adapted to the big screen in 1989 and regularly performed in theatre. â€Å"The BFG† is the story of Sophie, an orphan living in England whom one day spots a giant roaming the streets. Mysteriously, Sophie sees a giant figure in the shadows peeping into bedroom windows and blowing some sort of horn into the room. The giant, also known as Big Friendly Giant is actually delivering dreams to children. The giant’s other goal is to rid the world of nightmare dreams. Sophie befriends the giant and the two go on an adventure together, saving the world from nightmares. In the novel, Sophie and the BFG also use the Queen of England’s help in their quest. As if on cue, again we see the background of the protagonist, Sophie as an orphan. Dahl seems to always draw on his personal experiences hen creating his character’s stories. Dahl even named his character Sophie after his mother Sofie and his granddaughter, Sophie Dahl. As mentioned earlier, Dahl’s father, Harold, passed away when Dahl was at the young age of four. Dahl’s ability to create his characters as orphans in such a realistic fashion also plays into a widespread child fantasy of h aving no parents. Drawing the reader into these fantasies is part of the reason Dahl became such a prolific writer. When drawing parallels between Dahl’s fictitious stories and his real life, we must also note that Dahl includes the Queen of England as an important part of the story. This is peculiar because Dahl was invited by the Queen to be knighted; an invitation Dahl respectfully declined. The inclusion of orphanage in Dahl’s writings can also be paired with the addition of authority figures that abuse their power. As we further examine Dahl’s writings we see evidence of both of those themes present. Making it to the big screen was a reoccurring theme for Dahl’s novels. Like â€Å"The BFG† and â€Å"James and the Giant Peach†, Matilda, published in 1988, also accomplished the same feat. Matilda is the story about Matilda Wormwood, a gifted young girl. Unlike â€Å"The BFG† and â€Å"James and the Giant Peach†, Matilda is not an orphan. However, her parents are so uncaring and loathing of her that she may as well be. When Matilda attends school, she finds out that she is more than just gifted. Matilda has very special powers, including the ability to levitate objects with her mind power. Her first discovery of these powers is when she tips a glass with a Salamander over onto her rude and obnoxious headmaster, headmaster Trunchbell. Trunchbell punishes her students cruelly and forcefully and punishes all of the students in the class for the Salamander incident. As the protagonist, Sophie plots against Trunchbell and seeks to finally end the torturing of her classmates and banish the evil Trunchbell from the school forever. In Matilda, we see the recurring theme of orphanage. Again, Dahl has drawn on his childhood experience when creating the plot for this novel. Another theme that we saw in Matilda and â€Å"James and the Giant Peach† is the introduction to a nasty antagonistic authority figure. In Matilda, Ms. Trunchbell plays this role. In fact, Trunchbell seems to be an exact copy of one of Dahl’s previous headmasters in school, whom would yell at students and whip them with a wooden cane. In Roald Dahl’s autobiography, â€Å"Boy†, Dahl talks about being whipped with the cane as one of his most memorable experiences. By including real life experiences into his novel, Dahl is able to realistically recreate the same emotions, feelings, and thoughts to the reader as he had during those same experiences all the while weaving them into very outlandish and fictitious novel plots. The ability to do this entrenches the reader into a plausible fantasy, which is what made Dahl such an effective writer. Dahl was a masterful writer during his time. His life was more than just an ordinary one. Dahl was fortunate enough to serve as a pilot in the royal air force, befriend the President’s wife, and have the Queen of England invite him into knighthood. But it wasn’t these experiences that served as the backbone of plot and character development for his most prolific titles. It was his childhood, in which he lost his father at the early age of three and after that lived in fear of his dreadful headmaster during his boarding school days. These childhood experiences are what provided inspiration for his wonderful stories, loved by so many. Through this real life experience, Dahl was able to anchor his stories into a vivid reality and expand on that to create a wonderful fantasy experience for the reader. This plot development style allowed for the reader to plausibly accept what he or she was reading as a faint possibility and therefore increase reader enjoyment, excitement, and participation. http://booksmakeahappychildhood. blogspot. com/2012/08/literary-analysis-of-roald-dahl_10. html 1. http://www. biography. com/people/roald-dahl-9264648