British Children’s Literature traditionally tells a story whilst instilling a moral message for the intended children readership – commonplace in genres such as the conduct book and the cautionary tale. In fact, critic Peter Hunt believes that ‘it...

Cannibalism: it’s one of humanity’s biggest taboos. The word itself conjures images of horrific depravity to mind; scenes like the tribal rituals atop the pyramids of the Aztecs where human hearts were carved out and tossed to the crowd. But...

In several works of children’s literature, the use of language is closely tied with power. Specifically, in Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, and Matilda by Roald Dahl, each of these heroines uses...

One of Roald Dahl’s most popular, anthologized, and filmed stories is “Lamb to the Slaughter.” The title is an allusion to the ritualistic killing of lambs as part of an animal sacrifice. The contextual concept inherent in the reference is that...

In P.K. Page’s 1943 poem, “The Landlady,” the main character, the landlady, gives readers an uneasy feeling. This is because the speaker of the poem portrays the landlady in a complexly eerie manner. In the poem, the speaker describes the landlady...

Roald Dahl and William Faulkner explore the curious connection between love and death through their tales of passion-induced murder. Dahl's "The Landlady" and Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" are remarkably similar, but diverge on key elements of the...

The fairytale is one of the various genres of folklore representing fantasy and mythical creatures. Beginning as an oral tradition passed on to posterity, fairytales now find themselves in printed volumes preserved for eternity. Stemming from...

In “Television”, Roald Dahl contends that children should not be permitted to watch television, despite the fact that it is in most houses. Another alternative, according to Roald Dahl, would be not to install the TV at all. The children should be...