Essay Questions

In the prefatory essay explaining the difficulty he had with writing this guide, what does Dahl identify as the very first thing that adults forget about what it was like being a child?

Dahl prefaces the actual safety guide by explaining his difficulty in attempting to write something intended to actually tell kids what to do and what not to do. This difficulty springs from the fact that—he claims—he can actually remember what was like to be a kid whereas most “grown-ups” only think they remember. He goes on to assert that the very first thing adults forget once they’ve grown up and are no longer children is the psychological effect of stature upon kids. They live in a world surrounded by giants constantly telling them what they can and cannot do and, of course, anyone—child or adult—would just naturally have a propensity to follow the directions of a giant figure looming high above them. Dahl concludes this assertion by making the suggestion that if an adult really wants to remember what it was like being a child, the first thing they should do is get down on their hands and knees and see the world again from the perspective of children.

What does Dahl identify as the invention which ruined a lovely world?

In addition to identifying himself as capable of remembering childhood, Dahl also prefaces the actual safety content with rhapsodic appreciation of trains placed in juxtaposition to an antagonistic view toward automobiles. Taking his absolute final opportunity to stave off the unpleasant and difficult job of writing for the purpose of telling kids what to do, he elevates the rail system and its trains to an almost mystical status. Trains are the representative symbol of transportation in love world that once existed before the introduction of the motor car which not only ruined that lovely word but “also, to some extent, ruined us.” The mystical appreciate of trains then suddenly takes a hard left turn toward the negative that almost approaches a misanthropic screed while at the same time being absolutely one-hundred-percent right on the money. Terming automobiles “noisy machines made of steel that kill hundreds of thousands of people every year” his ultimate verdict on this alternative to the purity of train travel as “a tragedy for nature and for the environment and our health.”