The Life And Work Of Ronald Dahl
September 13, 1916, was the day Harald and Sofie Dahl, two
Norwegian immigrants living in Wales, had their first son, a boy they named
Roald. Even before birth Roald was supposed to be endowed with great sense
of beauty, courtesy of his father. Harald Dahl, a thriving ship broker in
Cardiff, possessed a great aesthetic sense; wishing to instill this in his
children, Harald encouraged his wife to go for long walks along the most
beautiful trails in the Welsh countryside, hoping the magnificence of
nature would seep through to the brain of the unborn child (Dahl, Boy 18-
19).
The death of Harald Dahl when Roald was four had a devastating
effect on the boy. Although he was very young, ...
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the language of Norway, and
instilling them with a love for all things Norwegian instead of those
English. Mark West contends that this contributed to the detached attitude
Dahl had for England and the feelings of isolation he experienced
throughout his life (2).
Regardless of the impact his Norwegian upbringing would have on his
future, Dahl wrote in Boy that the most idyllic days of his youth were
spent during the summers he, his mother, and his sisters would visit
Sofie's parents, Betsepapa and Betsemama, in Norway (53-74). "The summer
holidays! Those magic words! The mere mention of them used to send
shivers of joy rippling over my skin" (Dahl, Boy 53). Although these
annual forays to Norway were enjoyable for Dahl and his siblings, and they
helped to alleviate Sofie's grief, she always regretted that her son would
not have a father. She could do little to ameliorate the situation except
carry out her husband's dying wish: he wanted his children to attend
English public ...
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Boy, came from his
mind and his mind alone (35). It involved the boys putting a dead mouse
into a jar of Gobstoppers to frighten Mrs. Pratchett, the irascible candy
shop owner. She reported the perpetrators to Mr. Coombes, the Llandaff
headmaster, and he gave each four solid whacks on the rear with a cane,
with the ghastly Mrs. Pratchett egging him on (46-51). This incident,
Dahl's first negative experience with adults, prompted Sofie Dahl to
withdraw him from Llandaff at the end of the summer semester and enroll him
in St. Peter's, a boarding school for boys in England.
At St. Peter's Dahl was plagued with a profound homesickness, his
stint there being the first time he spent an ...
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"The Life And Work Of Ronald Dahl." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 25 Dec. 2007. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Life-And-Work-Ronald-Dahl/76449>
"The Life And Work Of Ronald Dahl." Essayworld.com. December 25, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Life-And-Work-Ronald-Dahl/76449.
"The Life And Work Of Ronald Dahl." Essayworld.com. December 25, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Life-And-Work-Ronald-Dahl/76449.
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