What Is Roald Dahl's Perspective Of Humans
What Is Roald Dahl’s Perspective of Humans?
By: Lucas
What does it mean to be a human being? There is still no definite answer, only ideas of what it truly means. In Roald Dahl’s perspective of humanity, humans are weak willed because they can easily lose to their emotions. People who are weak willed lack the ability to restrain their negative impulses. Nobody is perfect, which is why we sometimes act upon what is on our mind unconsciously. When this happens, the actions we do are not logical or in other words, not what we should have done. The main characters in “The Umbrella Man”, “Man from the South” and “Lamb to the Slaughter” all display weak will in different ways which shows us that there are many ways for us to become weak willed. In the story “The Umbrella Man”, the mother loses her pride, which she values a …show more content…
lot, because the greed had consumed her. At the beginning when the old man started to talk to the mother, she immediately “[looked] at him suspiciously” (pg.
2, par. 4). This suggests that she could have been tricked by someone similar to him because it is strange to suspect someone who you have never met before. When this same man wanted her to buy “his” silk umbrella for a pound, when the actual price, as he had stated, was “over twenty pounds” (pg. 4, par, 10), it was clearly too good to be true, and it was logical for the mother to be suspicious. Instead, she ignored this fact and followed her greed, which then lead to her downfall. You could see that she chose to follow her greed rather than be logical, because she “began to melt a bit” (par. 4, par. 5) from this offer and then she acted on her impulse or couldn’t control herself. The mother reacted like this because she would have benefited a lot from it by agreeing to the deal. Here, Roald Dahl is mentioning that we can’t control ourselves if we were in a situation like this, so it proves that our greed is causing the weak will. After she accepted the deal, she told her daughter, “I wanted to satisfy myself he wasn’t a trickster” (pg. 5, par. 6), and this sentence suddenly shows how she
dislikes and has pride in not helping tricksters, so when they discovered later on that the old man was actually a scam artist, her pride had been scarred. Part of the reason she thought the old man wasn’t a trickster was because the greed had caused ignorance for everything else except the good deal, or rather, the only thing on her mind was shelter from the rain, and she couldn’t restrain this thought. This woman and what has happened to her is a representation that Roald Dahl made of all humans and how we all have a weak will, because evil factors like greed affect and change us. If only there was no greed inside her, this deal would have never been done since she wouldn’t have been tempted and wouldn’t be considered as a weak willed person. As mention before, if you are weak willed, you can’t restrain your negative impulses, and since greed is negative, any impulse supported by greed is considered as being weak willed. This proves that ultimately, it is greed that causes us all to act on our negative impulses.
Mary Maloney in “Lamb to the Slaughter” was a kind wife who loved her husband, but because of one traumatic news, it had caused her to kill him. What had motivated this action was indeed this dreadful news, but more specifically it was actually the hate she received from hearing it. Just after Patrick had told her, “she couldn’t feel her feet [touch] the floor and she couldn’t feel anything at all- except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit.” (pg. 2, par. 7). This shows how she couldn’t control her body and was only thinking about what he told her. Here “her first instinct was not to believe any of it” (pg. 2, par. 6) since she loved him so much that she wasn’t sure if it was true. But when he said, “Don’t make supper for me, I’m going out.” (pg. 2, par. 9), she realized that this was all true and then she felt hate towards Patrick. Instead of being logical and actually controlling it, she did the opposite and acted accordingly to the hate by killing him with the leg of lamb. This shows that she was too powerless to control the hate and how she lacked the ability to restrain this negative impulse, which is why she is considered as a weak willed person. The hate inside of her had clouded her judgement and made her choose choices she thought was correct like revenge, but in reality they were wrong. Overall in this story, it was truly hate that had caused her to become weak willed because it had caused Mary to lose control of her body and make her act on her impulse or in other words, what was on her mind. The American boy in the story “Man from the South” had almost lost his finger in the bet set up by Carlos (the old man) due to his pride and confidence. From analyzing this character, this boy has hubris which means that he is overconfident and has excessive pride, and these are what actually caused him to become weak willed. First he bragged about his lighter and how it would always light, when it was actually just an exaggeration and this shows how he is really confident in himself, in fact too confident. Then Carlos challenged him into a bet where he could either win an almost new Cadillac or lose his finger. Although he knew that this was insane as he had said “Jumping jeepers! That’s a crazy bet.” (pg. 4, par. 20), he still participated because he wanted to fight for his pride and show how he was not willing to back down. Also another reason he participated was that he was so confident in himself that he thought he couldn’t lose. When you are overconfident, it becomes a negative thing, and this impulse (participating in the bet) happened because of overconfidence so that means this was a negative impulse. Since he couldn’t restrain this negative impulse, this is why he is considered as a weak willed person. Before he had actually agreed to this bet, Carlos toyed with the boy’s pride by saying “I do not understand. You say it lights but you will not bet. Den we forget it, yes?” (pg. 4, par. 21), and after he heard this, he accepted which shows that overall in this story it was hubris that made this happen and the American boy weak willed. In conclusion, from the mother in “The Umbrella Man”, to the American boy in “Man from the South” and to Mary Maloney in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, all have been the victims of weak will. They have experienced weak will in different forms, and some without knowing it themselves. This proves Roald Dahl’s point that all humans are susceptible to weak will. Even though you might not be weak willed currently, it might happen without you knowing. This willpower is a really powerful part of us, but can be changed into a weak will by negative impulses such as greed, excessive pride and confidence and also negative emotions. It is similar to the edge of a cliff as it takes just one push for someone to fall off, just like how someone’s willpower can easily changed to a weak will.
By: Lucas
What does it mean to be a human being? There is still no definite answer, only ideas of what it truly means. In Roald Dahl’s perspective of humanity, humans are weak willed because they can easily lose to their emotions. People who are weak willed lack the ability to restrain their negative impulses. Nobody is perfect, which is why we sometimes act upon what is on our mind unconsciously. When this happens, the actions we do are not logical or in other words, not what we should have done. The main characters in “The Umbrella Man”, “Man from the South” and “Lamb to the Slaughter” all display weak will in different ways which shows us that there are many ways for us to become weak willed. In the story “The Umbrella Man”, the mother loses her pride, which she values a …show more content…
lot, because the greed had consumed her. At the beginning when the old man started to talk to the mother, she immediately “[looked] at him suspiciously” (pg.
2, par. 4). This suggests that she could have been tricked by someone similar to him because it is strange to suspect someone who you have never met before. When this same man wanted her to buy “his” silk umbrella for a pound, when the actual price, as he had stated, was “over twenty pounds” (pg. 4, par, 10), it was clearly too good to be true, and it was logical for the mother to be suspicious. Instead, she ignored this fact and followed her greed, which then lead to her downfall. You could see that she chose to follow her greed rather than be logical, because she “began to melt a bit” (par. 4, par. 5) from this offer and then she acted on her impulse or couldn’t control herself. The mother reacted like this because she would have benefited a lot from it by agreeing to the deal. Here, Roald Dahl is mentioning that we can’t control ourselves if we were in a situation like this, so it proves that our greed is causing the weak will. After she accepted the deal, she told her daughter, “I wanted to satisfy myself he wasn’t a trickster” (pg. 5, par. 6), and this sentence suddenly shows how she
dislikes and has pride in not helping tricksters, so when they discovered later on that the old man was actually a scam artist, her pride had been scarred. Part of the reason she thought the old man wasn’t a trickster was because the greed had caused ignorance for everything else except the good deal, or rather, the only thing on her mind was shelter from the rain, and she couldn’t restrain this thought. This woman and what has happened to her is a representation that Roald Dahl made of all humans and how we all have a weak will, because evil factors like greed affect and change us. If only there was no greed inside her, this deal would have never been done since she wouldn’t have been tempted and wouldn’t be considered as a weak willed person. As mention before, if you are weak willed, you can’t restrain your negative impulses, and since greed is negative, any impulse supported by greed is considered as being weak willed. This proves that ultimately, it is greed that causes us all to act on our negative impulses.
Mary Maloney in “Lamb to the Slaughter” was a kind wife who loved her husband, but because of one traumatic news, it had caused her to kill him. What had motivated this action was indeed this dreadful news, but more specifically it was actually the hate she received from hearing it. Just after Patrick had told her, “she couldn’t feel her feet [touch] the floor and she couldn’t feel anything at all- except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit.” (pg. 2, par. 7). This shows how she couldn’t control her body and was only thinking about what he told her. Here “her first instinct was not to believe any of it” (pg. 2, par. 6) since she loved him so much that she wasn’t sure if it was true. But when he said, “Don’t make supper for me, I’m going out.” (pg. 2, par. 9), she realized that this was all true and then she felt hate towards Patrick. Instead of being logical and actually controlling it, she did the opposite and acted accordingly to the hate by killing him with the leg of lamb. This shows that she was too powerless to control the hate and how she lacked the ability to restrain this negative impulse, which is why she is considered as a weak willed person. The hate inside of her had clouded her judgement and made her choose choices she thought was correct like revenge, but in reality they were wrong. Overall in this story, it was truly hate that had caused her to become weak willed because it had caused Mary to lose control of her body and make her act on her impulse or in other words, what was on her mind. The American boy in the story “Man from the South” had almost lost his finger in the bet set up by Carlos (the old man) due to his pride and confidence. From analyzing this character, this boy has hubris which means that he is overconfident and has excessive pride, and these are what actually caused him to become weak willed. First he bragged about his lighter and how it would always light, when it was actually just an exaggeration and this shows how he is really confident in himself, in fact too confident. Then Carlos challenged him into a bet where he could either win an almost new Cadillac or lose his finger. Although he knew that this was insane as he had said “Jumping jeepers! That’s a crazy bet.” (pg. 4, par. 20), he still participated because he wanted to fight for his pride and show how he was not willing to back down. Also another reason he participated was that he was so confident in himself that he thought he couldn’t lose. When you are overconfident, it becomes a negative thing, and this impulse (participating in the bet) happened because of overconfidence so that means this was a negative impulse. Since he couldn’t restrain this negative impulse, this is why he is considered as a weak willed person. Before he had actually agreed to this bet, Carlos toyed with the boy’s pride by saying “I do not understand. You say it lights but you will not bet. Den we forget it, yes?” (pg. 4, par. 21), and after he heard this, he accepted which shows that overall in this story it was hubris that made this happen and the American boy weak willed. In conclusion, from the mother in “The Umbrella Man”, to the American boy in “Man from the South” and to Mary Maloney in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, all have been the victims of weak will. They have experienced weak will in different forms, and some without knowing it themselves. This proves Roald Dahl’s point that all humans are susceptible to weak will. Even though you might not be weak willed currently, it might happen without you knowing. This willpower is a really powerful part of us, but can be changed into a weak will by negative impulses such as greed, excessive pride and confidence and also negative emotions. It is similar to the edge of a cliff as it takes just one push for someone to fall off, just like how someone’s willpower can easily changed to a weak will.