Essay Questions

Many of these poems feature animals in Aesop-like fables but avoid providing a moral. What is the very direct moral of "The Porcupine" delivered by the narrator?

In addition to be one of the few poems that ends with a distinctive lesson to be learned, “The Porcupine” also stands out an exception in that the title animal plays such a tiny role. Although his presence is pervasive throughout the narrative, his actually appearance is limited to really more of a cameo than even a supporting role; he is given no personality or even a description. This fable is really more about the consequences of coming across a porcupine than the actual confrontation, which also makes it unique. As a result, the bulk of the action takes place far away from the wildlife arena and primarily focusing on a dental office in which the quills are professionally—if overzealously—removed. The moral is simplicity itself in light of all the aggravation caused by mistaking a porcupine for a rock to sit upon: “Be sure to LOOK before you SIT.”

Identify how Dahl manipulates narrative point-of-view (perspective) to intensify the dramatic ending of “The Lion.”

“The Lion” starts out sounding like a simple third-person perspective narration as the speaker unrolls a litany of the preferential dietary habits of the title animal in pursuit of the question “which is the tenderest?” Manipulation of expectation is further heightened midway through in a series of questions that seem to be entirely rhetorical:

“Then could it be a big plump hen?

He answers no. What is it, then?

Oh, lion dear, could I not make

You happy with a lovely steak?”

It is not until the very end that the true nature of the poem’s point-of-view is revealed as being that of a first-person narrator who has not been asking questions that are purely rhetorical. Indeed, the first-person narrator has actually been addressing his questions directly to a lion. The final dramatic turnabout arrives in the last line when the lion speaks to the narrator and informs him that it is he—the narrator himself—who is the tender meat that he is about to enjoy next.

Both “The Scorpion” and “The Crocodile” also pivot dramatically on a suddenly shift in perspective. How are these poems similar?

“The Crocodile” begins a conventional third-person narrative tale about a titular animal named Crocky-Wock. Although the story is about how he eats children—literally the differences he makes in what kind of food goes with his boy victims as opposed to his girl victims—the story is rather lighthearted in tone and the accompanying illustration is not particularly frightening. Suddenly, halfway through, it is revealed that Crocky-Wock’s story is actually a bedtime tale being told a child by his father. The father then starts to introduce the threat of actual terror into the story by maintaining that he hears Crocky-Wock himself actually coming up the stairs looking to each the little boy who has just been told the story.

This transformation into a story-within-a-story also takes place in “The Scorpion” as the story about the potential danger of Stingaling the scorpion turns into a intense dramatic scene between the mother telling that tale and the daughter in bed listening to it as the daughter reaches an increasing state of frenzy over the feeling that a something—a scorpion, perhaps—is crawling up her leg.