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Matthew Smith
4/8/16
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Roald Dahl
Well respected author Roald Dahl, was born in 1916 in Llandoff, South Wales. At age 4,
Dahl lost his father, and it changed his life forever. He started being more active at a young age,
looking anywhere and everywhere for an adventure. These urges for adventure lead him to join
the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1939, where he saw the atrocities of war as a fighter pilot. As a
member of the RAF, Dahl witnessed countless deaths including a close encounter with himself.
After writing his first short story about his pilot life, Dahl became a published author writing
many more short stories and many world famous novels. They Shall Not grow Old and A
Fine Son are two of the many short stories he wrote, but they have a special connection with the
author. In both short stories, Dahl uses his past experiences in the RAF as an inspiration for his
writing, using elements of dark humor, satire, and mystery.
The darkness and monstrosities of WWll had a major effect on Dahls psyche. He saw
many of his fellow soldiers die and he witnessed first-hand one of the single most ruthless
leaders of all time. At the time, Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, and as seen by the
allied powers, the figure head of evil. Dahl uses his experiences in war and knowledge of Adolf
Hitler in many of his short stories. A Fine Son is about a mother who had lost three children
and is about to lose another. The mother is grieving over her losses and she feels that she is all
alone. This is similar to Roald Dahl. Dahl had been a soldier is WWll and he had experienced the
death of some of his own squad members. Dahl to, felt that he was all alone and he would do

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anything to save and fight with his brothers on the battlefield in the sky. As the story continues,
the doctors are doing everything they can to save the newborn, who the reader finds out to be
named Adolphius or Adolf for short. At this point the reader is astonished and questioning. The
only prevalent Adolf at the time was Adolf Hitler and to most, that would be too dark and
unfathomable to write or think about. Dahl however has witnessed the dark, gruesome, events of
war and to him, it is nothing but humor. Dahl also uses mystery to form questions in the readers
head and to entice them to keep on reading. As the story continues, the doctor does save the child
and the mother is relieved, but as the reader does assume, the child is Adolf Hitler. The irony of
the mothers desire to save one of the worst leaders in the history of the world is Dahls unique
and absurd use of dark humor. Dahl in dark way releases his built up frustration and feelings
cultivating them into riveting short stories about his wartime past.
As a pilot, Dahl went through many tough and life threatening situations. As a tall
gentleman, it was tough for Dahl to fit into the plane, but he did. As one of his doctors said,
Well I have a minimum height for pilots but no maximum, so as you are fit, youll do (Dahl
Website). Although uncomfortable, Dahl set out in 1939 to start his pilot training, eventually
being assigned to a squadron of 80 in North Africa, going on many missions for his country. As
any pilot might experience, being in the air for a long amount of time can have an effect on the
mind. In the short story, Fin, a pilot goes on a mission to track enemy ships but it takes him a
long time. The other squad members believed that he was dead because there would be know
way he could stay out that long. He comes back thinking it was only an hour and five minutes,
which worries the other squad mates because it lasted two days. Eventually Fin remembers what
he witnessed and claims that when he was stuck in a dive, he saw pilots flying and said they were
the pilots who have died in battle and are taking flight in their last journey. Fin says that they

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waved to him and he waved back, he was supremely happy. To both the narrator and crew
members, this was a make belief and crazy story. They thought there was no way he could see
dead pilots. This however could have been Dahls way of showing how the experiences of war
can affect the mind. Dahl had been on many missions before and has seen countless of deaths
from both sides of the fight. The wear and tear of war can affect a soldiers mind and this is
shown through the story.
They Shall Not Grow Old in relationship to Dahls experience is extremely similar.
Roald Dahl was assigned to 80 Squadron in North Africa. On a mission in North Africa, Roald
dahl crashed a Gladiator plane receiving severe injuries to his head, nose, and back. This was not
uncommon during the war as many planes crash, and after half a year recovering, Roald Dahl
rejoined 80 Squadron lead by Pat Pattle. Dahl and Pattle were both sent out to the battle of
Athens, leading to the death of Pat after being it on his left wing in combat. In the story, as Fin
and the narrator are on an attack, one of the pilots named Paddy is hit and dies. Paddy's
machine was hit. As we wheeled for the second run we saw his Hurricane wing gently over and
dive straight to the ground at the edge of the aerodrome (Dahl, 4). Here, Dahl is using his
personal experiences in an actual WWll battle for his story. This adds a unique element to his
writing, enticing the reader to read more and look more into his stories for the meaning behind
his words. Another interesting thing is how the narrator feels when all of the events are
occurring. The narrator is sad about losing a fellow soldier but after a few seconds, he is unphased. This could be a reflection of how Dahl felt when he was fighting. Dahl had been through
a plane crash and through many deaths, so he could have been desensitized just as the narrator is.
His desensitization also has an impact on his use of dark humor and satire. At the end of
They Shall Not Grow Old, as Fin is about to die, he remembers the trance he was in earlier. He

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yearned to be happy like he was then and he would have rather be dead and in that trance, then
be living and fighting in war. The story concludes with him dying saying, "I'm a lucky bastard,"
he was saying. "A lucky, lucky bastard (Dahl, 9). Dahl could be saying one of two things. He
could be expressing his feelings that he would rather be dead than alive, or he could be using
satire on heaven. He could be making fun of the idea of heaven and pretending its a magical
place where in reality he believes that there is no heaven. Dahls use of dark humor and satire in
most of his stories has a resounding effect on the way the reader comprehends his connotation.
Roald Dahls unique way of writing is prevalent in both A Fine Son and They Shall
Not Grow Old. As a soldier for the allied side in WW2, Dahl had his own bias and knowledge
about flying and political powers. His personal experiences that he went through are used in both
of these stories. Dahl had lost his father at age four, losing somebody he loved dearly. The
mother in A Fine Son had lost three children, trying to save another. Dahl used his emotions of
losing someone close in his life into this story. It just so happened that the son who was
miracously saved was Adolf Hitler. In the other story, the narrator lost a fellow pilot named
Paddy, extremely similar to in real life his commander Pat Pattle. Both stories use Dahls
specific point of view creating two amazing short stories.
Roald Dahls life had many ups and downs. He lost his father at age four, and crashed a
plane during WWll, but these life changing events lead him to bigger and greater things, like
becoming a world famous author. These real life events gave Dahl a voice and many interesting
topics to write about, which made his stories even more interesting. The similarities to his
personal life and unique way of writing set Dahls stories as some of the greatest of all time.

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Works Cited

Barber, Mark. Squadron Leader Marmaduke Pat Pattle. Gaijian Entertainment, 2 Apr. 2015.
Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

Dahl, Roald. "The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl Volume 1." N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr.
2016.
Dahl, Roald. Genesis and Catastrophe: A True Story. N.p., 1962. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl Literary Estate LLP, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.