Censorship vs.

Adaptation:
Roald Dahl's Morals And
His Moralization

Anamaria Tudor, 2nd year, LMA EN-GE

 About Roald Dahl
13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990

“Kindness – that simple “There is a trait in the Jewish

word. To be kind – it covers character that does provoke
everything, to my mind. If animosity [...] even a stinker
you’re kind that’s it.” like Hitler didn’t just pick on
them for no reason."
 What Happened to His Books?

"Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship”

-Salman Rushdie, American-British-Indian novelist

“And, of course people should be vigilant about freedom of

speech when we’re bowdlerising
Roald Dahl."
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the UK between 2019 and 2022

Roald Dahl and Stereotypes

Stereotypes=characteristics that society

instinctively attributes to groups of people
to classify them according to age, weight,
occupation, skin colour, gender, etc
 Examples of Changes
#1
"The picture showed a nine-year-old boy who was so
enormously fat. He looked as though he had been
blown up with a powerful pump. Great flabby folds of fat=
fat bulged out from every part of his body, and his face
was like a monstrous ball of dough with two small
greedy curranty eyes peering out upon the world."
#2
"working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman"

"working as a top scientist or running a business"

#3

"The machines were both black. They were murderous, brutal-looking monsters."
Is this good or bad?

...for me, it is a double-edged sword.

 References
Roald Dahl in conversation with Brian Sibley. BBC World Service 1988
Michael Coren, "Roald Dahl’s anti-Semitism was grotesque. I should know – I saw it first hand", The New
Statesman, 8 October 2021, link:https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2021/10/roald-dahls-anti-
semitism-was-grotesque-i-should-know-i-saw-it-first-hand
Gouvernement du Québec, "Effects of Stereotypes on Personal Development", last updated 23 February 2023,
link:https://www.quebec.ca/en/family-and-support-for-individuals/childhood/child-development/effects-
stereotypes-personal-development/definition-stereotypes