Beware Of The Dog By Roald Dahl

In “Beware of the Dog” by Roald Dahl, set during WWII, American pilot’s plane malfunctions and he is forced to drop jump out before it crashes. He wakes in a hospital, where a nurse tells him he is in Brighton. He begins to doubt what the nurse said when he hears German war planes overhead. While the nurse gives him a bed bath, she comments that the water is extremely hard. When the nurse leaves the pilot remembers that the last time he was in Brighton the water was remarkably soft and if the water was hard he could not possibly be recovering in Brighton. This thought leads him to struggle to the window to see for himself where he is. Thus, when he reaches the window he discovers a sign outside written in French that translates to “Beware of
the Dog”. The pilot now knows for a surety that he is in German occupied France and therefore must be a prisoner of war! This story portrays the internals battles and dangers that soldiers face during war, and the importance of being aware of your surroundings for your own safety through the author’s first-hand knowledge of the war.