S.S. Mantola
The Mantola is the ship which transports Dahl from his home in England to Africa where a job awaits working with the Shell Company. It is more than a job that is waiting for him, however. It is a chance for independence, an opportunity to spread his wings and explore his imagination. The Mantola is the symbolic vessel carrying Dahl from childhood to maturity.
Africa
On nearly every page for at least the first half of the book, something indigenous to Africa captures the fancy of Dahl. Giraffes eating on the side of a road and the fearsome and terror-inducing snakes share the same philosophical space. Africa is not just everything that England is not, it is like a dream come to life. The effects of this time will go on to resonate throughout the rest of Dahl’s life as Africa shows up again and gain in his stories. Africa is the wonderland, the fantastical world of imagination come to life.
Snakes
Dahl expresses a primal fear of snakes like any normal person. Africa is not really the place to be if one is afraid of snakes and he shares a couple of stories about them the danger faced and the threat overcome. As a result, snakes become a complex symbol of not just a truly deep-seated and paralyzing sort of fear, but the ability for such a fear—potentially, as revealed through the actions of others—to be faced and confronted, if not necessarily overcome.
Elephants
Dahl relates just one specific occasion when he was afforded the opportunity to see this most African of animals. It was just a family—father, mother and child—moving slowly and gently, completely unaware of his presence. The serenity granted by being the biggest thing around, not having to kill in order to eat and knowing they themselves be considered prey by other animals only under the most extreme of situations endows them with a symbolic quality that Dahl terms “a life of absolute commitment.”
The African Bullfrog
The African version of the bullfrog is worthy of attention enough to warrant its own long paragraph describing its unique mating habits. Those habits involve creating a song from its loud croaking which lures interested females. But upon arrival, the female find itself ignored as the frog by then has become so enamored by the sound of its own croaking that it has forgotten the purpose entirely, its attention now solely focused on singing its beautiful song. This will go on until a female loses a patience and takes things into her own hands, so to speak. It is a short little digressive section apropos of nothing before or after, but a more potent symbol of narcissism one will be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the entire Dahl canon. Which is interesting because Dahl has himself been accused at times of narcissistic tendencies.
