Lamb to the Slaughter By Roald Dahl
In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the slaughter,” the behaviour of
the characters makes us shiver.
The story starts off with Mary Maloney‘s husband walking in from work
and sitting down in the armchair. She then made him a drink and asked
him he was tired. She then asked him if he wanted supper but he said
no. later he said he had something important to say and for a few
moments she stood shocked. She went to get the supper out any way but
when she came back up he was standing next to the window, she then
smacked him round the back of the head smashing his scull. She acted
normally as not arouse suspicion. She went to the shop and then went
home and called the police. They came round and investigated the crime
scene, and looked for the murder weapon. Mary offered the lamb to the
police officers to eat and they did and by doing so eating the only
bit of evidence proving it was her.
At first we see Mary Maloney as a gentle, loving person but we later
find out she is capable of murder. We don’t like thinking that we are
a bad judge of character but this is the way Roald Dahl wanted. Roald
Dahl writes nearly all his stories with a twist in them. He has a
particular style of writing that lulls the reader to think one thing
but to later twist that belief.
My first impression of Mary Maloney was a happy woman with a lovely
husband. “Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come him from
work.” and “…went forward to kiss him as he came in”. These lines to
me show her as a typical wife waiting for her husband to come home and
to give her the love and attention she needs. Her personality is quite
lovely one at first. She waited, looking at the clock to see how long ...
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... blame me
too much.” He is not as cruel as I I first though but that’s a theme
all the way through the story, not being like we first thought.
After I read the story I felt hat the title was quite appropriate
because the way she killed him was rather cruel. She comes up behind
him with him having no idea she has the large piece of lamb in her
hands and hits him and ultimately kills him. He was like a lamb, weak
and innocent. Well he wasn’t innocent as such but he could have sorted
that out after he had the discussion.
In Conclusion, the behavior of Mary Maloney made me shiver because I
had misjudged her right from the beginning and did not realise what
she was capable of. I think Roald Dahl has written this story in a
magnificent way. He captures the reader and wants them to carry on to
the very end. He is no doubt one of the best writers of all time.
if she had fed him steak the night before because of the undigested red meat. The
American consumers think of voting as something to be done in a booth when election season comes around. In fact, voting happens with every swipe of a credit card in a supermarket, and with every drive-through window order. Every bite taken in the United States has repercussions that are socially, politically, economically, and morally based. How food is produced and where it comes from is so much more complicated than the picture of the pastured cow on the packaging seen when placing a vote. So what happens when parents are forced to make a vote for their children each and every meal? This is the dilemma that Jonathan Safran Foer is faced with, and what prompted his novel, Eating Animals. Perhaps one of the core issues explored is the American factory farm. Although it is said that factory farms are the best way to produce a large amount of food at an affordable price, I agree with Foer that government subsidized factory farms use taxpayer dollars to exploit animals to feed citizens meat produced in a way that is unsustainable, unhealthy, immoral, and wasteful. Foer also argues for vegetarianism and decreased meat consumption overall, however based on the facts it seems more logical to take baby steps such as encouraging people to buy locally grown or at least family farmed meat, rather than from the big dogs. This will encourage the government to reevaluate the way meat is produced. People eat animals, but they should do so responsibly for their own benefit.
Having to take your anger out on someone isn’t fair or good, especially if you’re being killed with frozen lamb. Based on everyone’s understanding, when you kill someone you’ll have to pay the price and consequences. Apparently this lady didn’t. But are we sure she’s going to marry another man and kill him too? In “Lamb to the slaughter”, I’m going to be talking about Mary Maloney and how madly crazy she is.
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Only once during the two years that we have him under view, does he venture
Weintraub, Stanley. ""Doll's House" Metaphor Foreshadowed in Victorian Fiction." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 13: 67-69. Web. 6 Jan. 2011.
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