Boy: Tales of Childhood Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Riding a Bike Without Hands (Symbol)

Early in the book, Dahl recounts one of his most vivid childhood memories. In the memory, he
sees an older boy descending a hill on a bicycle. What catches Dahl's attention is that the boy has
his arms crossed over his chest; without holding onto the bars, the boy maintains stability and
whizzes down the hill. The sight bewitches Dahl because of the freedom it symbolizes. From
then on, he dreams of attaining the same ability as the boy, longing to experience the freedom he
imagines the boy must feel.
Facing Home (Symbol)
While living away from his family at St. Peter's boarding school, Dahl goes to sleep every night
imagining a line connecting him to his home in South Wales. He faces the same direction each
night so that he can feel the comfort of maintaining an invisible connection to his family
members. In this way, Dahl's need to face home while he sleeps is a symbol for the
homesickness he feels. If he were more comfortable staying at St. Peter's, he would vary his
sleeping position and not think twice about it. As it is, he faces the same direction every night,
abiding by an almost superstitious rule he sets for himself.
Letters Home (Symbol)
While at St. Peter's in England, Dahl writes weekly letters to his mother at home in South Wales.
Although he has many complaints about his treatment, Dahl is always sure to say only kind
things about his teachers and the school. Dahl knows the Headmaster is lurking over his
shoulder, ensuring no one criticizes the for-profit school he runs. Because of this censoring
presence, Dahl's letters home symbolize the oppression he and the other pupils live under. Even
in supposedly genuine expressions of their feelings, the boys' are implicitly pressured to conceal
the truth and accept their torturous circumstances.
Whipping Cane (Symbol)
Throughout Dahl's childhood and adolescence, school officials and older boys use whipping
canes against him as instruments of discipline and punishment. The cane beatings symbolize
authority figures' sadistic nature. After recounting several traumatic memories of being hit with a
cane, Dahl comments on why he keeps returning to the subject, stating that he cannot avoid
thinking about it. Even as an adult, Dahl remembers the cane's physical imprint on his body
when he sits on a hard chair, and he continues to resent sadistic authority figures who preach
principles of morality they don't practice themselves.
Summers in Norway (Symbol)
Although most of Boy: Tales of Childhood  comprises memories of Dahl's time at school,
he spends every summer visiting family in Norway, his parents' birthplace. These summers in
Norway symbolize escape. While at school, Dahl lives under the oppressive, sadistic authority of
cruel headmasters and matrons and senior "boazers." In Norway, he can escape the concerns of
his everyday life and be himself again: a playful, happy boy who loves nothing more than to eat
fresh fish and lounge in the sun with his mother and siblings.
Boy: Tales of Childhood Metaphors and Similes
Alarm Bells (Metaphor)
When Dahl and his friends stop by the candy shop on the way to school to see whether their
prank on Mrs. Pratchett was successful, a collective unease descends on the group at the sight of
the broken jar on the floor of the closed store. They walk away in silence, sensing danger in the
air. Dahl writes, "Alarm bells were beginning to ring faintly in our ears." In this metaphor, Dahl
illustrates the fear the boys feel by stating that they can hear alarm bells. There are no actual
alarm bells going off; rather, because the boys assume they are about to face some consequence
for their prank, they feel the panic that real alarm bells would provoke.
A Nightmare (Metaphor)
When Dahl is watching his friends get caned by Mr. Coombes as punishment for pranking Mrs.
Pratchett, Mrs. Pratchett's presence intensifies Dahl's discomfort. Dahl comments, "The violence
was bad enough, and being made to watch it was even worse, but with Mrs Pratchett in the
audience the whole thing became a nightmare." In this metaphor, Dahl emphasizes the surreal
horror of the experience by referring to it as a nightmare, even though the corporal punishment is
happening in waking life.
Like an Athlete (Simile)
As Mr. Coombes viciously beats Dahl's and his friend's backside with a cane, Mrs. Pratchett
exacts her revenge against the troublemakers by urging Coombes to hit them harder. Dahl writes,
"She kept up her screeching all the way through, exhorting Mr Coombes to greater and still
greater efforts, and the awful thing was that he seemed to be responding to her cries. He was like
an athlete who is spurred on by the shouts of the crowd in the stands." In this simile, Dahl
illustrates Mr. Coombes's vigorous response to Mrs. Pratchett's encouragement by likening him
to an athlete who has a burst of energy when spectators cheer him on.
Moving Like Lightning (Simile)
While at boarding school, Dahl and the other pupils are terrified of the Matron, a nurse who
oversees the boys' well-being while they live in the dormitories. When describing her presence in
the hallway, Dahl writes, "She could move along that corridor like lightning, and when you least
expected it, her head and her bosom would come popping through the dormitory doorway." In
this simile, Dahl emphasizes the speed and terror-inducing nature of the woman by comparing
her movement to strikes of lightning.
Skim Them Off the Top of My Consciousness (Metaphor)
In the preface to Boy: Tales of Childhood, Dahl comments on how he recounted the
memories that comprise the book without having to do research, because everything in the book
was already present in his mind. Dahl writes, "I didn’t have to search for any of them. All I had
to do was skim them off the top of my consciousness and write them down." In this metaphor,
Dahl highlights the ease with which he located the memories by likening the work to an action as
simple as scooping up something that floats on something larger, such as lifting a stick from the
surface of a pond.

Boy: Tales of Childhood Irony

Only One Serious Inconvenience (Situational Irony)
When Dahl's father Harald is fourteen, he falls off a roof and fractures his elbow. The local
doctor, who happens to be drunk at the time, mistakes Harald's fractured elbow for a dislocated
shoulder. In the ensuing confusion, Harald's arm is amputated. Working around the handicap,
Harald develops strategies for accomplishing everyday tasks, such as cutting and eating food
with a single piece of cutlery that has a blade sharpened into the underside of fork tines. Later,
Harald tells his son that losing his arm resulted in "only one serious inconvenience" in that it
became "impossible to cut the top off a boiled egg." In this instance of situational irony, Dahl
undermines the reader's expectation that the loss of an arm would greatly disable his father.
Instead, Dahl's father manages his life well enough, humorously downplaying his disability by
claiming that it has only really impaired his ability to eat boiled eggs.
An Exciting Discovery (Situational Irony)
In elementary school, Dahl and his friends find a loose floorboard at the back of their classroom.
In the cavity underneath, they hide candy and chocolate. One day, they lift the floorboard and
find "a dead mouse lying among [their] treasures." While the dead mouse might upset or disgust
most people, Dahl comments that "it was an exciting discovery." In this instance of situational
irony, Dahl undermines the reader's expectation that a dead mouse would be an unwanted
presence among things the boys plan to eat by referring to the mouse as "exciting." Rather than
argue over who has to remove it and whether it is safe to eat the tainted candy, the boys eagerly
pluck the mouse out and plot their revenge against Mrs. Pratchett.
Censored Letters (Dramatic Irony)
While at boarding school, Dahl writes weekly letters to his mother in which he praises the school
and his teachers. In truth, he is miserable at the school, but he knows he cannot say anything
negative without angering the headmaster, who looms over everyone's shoulders as they write.
Even though the headmaster will point out spelling mistakes, he won't allow the boys to correct
them, thereby giving the impression that no one has examined the letters before they are sent out.
Dahl writes, "Thus, the unsuspecting parents received in this subtle way the impression that your
letter had never been seen or censored or corrected by anyone." In this instance of dramatic
irony, Dahl's mother is ignorant of the circumstances in which her son lives while Dahl and the
reader know the truth.
Hypocritical Preacher (Situational Irony)
When recalling his impression of the headmaster at Repton Prep School, Dahl comments on how
the sadistic man would eventually become Archbishop of Canterbury, a position of authority that
makes him responsible for crowning Queen Elizabeth II. Watching the coronation on television
along with half the world, Dahl remembers how the same man used to viciously beat small boys
with a cane. In this instance of situational irony, Dahl considers the surreality of such an evil
man becoming the most powerful religious authority in England.
Acute Appendicitis (Dramatic Irony)
When Dahl's homesickness at boarding school becomes too much to bear, he orchestrates a plan
to get sent home to his mother. Having witnessed his older sister's bout with appendicitis, Dahl
fakes a case of acute appendicitis by performing the symptoms in the Matron's sick room.
Although the Matron is inclined to believe any boy is faking ill to get out of something, Dahl's
trick works on her. Quickly shifting from anger to genuine concern, the Matron orders that he be
sent home to be checked out by his family doctor. In this instance of dramatic irony, the Matron
is oblivious to Dahl's fakery while the reader observes the scene knowing the truth.

Boy: Tales of Childhood Imagery

Crack Like a Pistol Shot (Auditory Imagery)
When Dahl recounts how Mr. Coombes punishes him and his friends, he emphasizes not just the
physical gesture of the cane beating but its sound: "He raised the cane high above his shoulder,
and as he brought it down, it made a loud swishing sound, and then there was a crack like a pistol
shot as it struck Thwaites’s bottom." In this example of auditory imagery, Dahl immerses the
reader in his experience of receiving corporal punishment by detailing the violent sound of the
cane, which is indistinguishable from a gunshot.
Lying Pale and Milky on the Horizon (Visual Imagery)
At nine years old, Dahl starts attending a boarding school in Weston-super-Mare, an English
town that is close to his hometown in South Wales. Dahls writes, "It lies almost directly across
the Bristol Channel from Cardiff, and on a clear day you can stand on the esplanade at Weston
and look across the fifteen or so miles of water and see the coast of Wales lying pale and milky
on the horizon." In this example of visual imagery, Dahl illustrates his proximity to home by
describing how Wales was close enough that he could see its pale, milky outline in the distance.
Smelled of Nail-Varnish (Olfactory Imagery)
When Dahl details his boyhood love of candy, he writes that "Pear Drops were exciting because
they had a dangerous taste. They smelled of nail-varnish and they froze the back of your throat.
All of us were warned against eating them, and the result was that we ate them more than ever."
In this example of olfactory imagery, Dahl makes his description come alive by evoking the
sharp, poisonous-seeming scent of Pear Drops by comparing it to nail varnish, a household
product most readers have likely encountered and been put off by.
White Bubbles Appeared Around His Lips (Visual
Imagery)
One night while Dahl is sleeping at the St. Peter's dormitory, a boy named Tweedie snores
loudly. His snoring angers the Matron, who decides to teach Tweedie a lesson by putting soap
flakes in his open mouth. Dahl recounts his horror, commenting, "Then suddenly he began to
gurgle and white bubbles appeared around his lips. The bubbles grew and grew until in the end
his whole face seemed to be smothered in a bubbly foaming white soapy froth." In this example
of visual imagery, Dahl uses vivid detail to recreate the surreal image of Tweedie's saliva
activating the suds in the soap flakes until white foam covers his face.

Boy: Tales of Childhood Literary Elements

Genre
Memoir; Children's Literature
Setting and Context
The book is set in the 1920s and 1930s at Llandaff Cathedral School,
Wales; St. Peter’s School, Somerset; Repton School, Derby; and in
Norway.
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator is Roald Dahl; the point of view is from Dahl in the present
day as he looks back on his childhood.
Tone and Mood
The tone is conversational; the mood is lighthearted, nostalgic, and at times
resentful.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Dahl is the protagonist; the antagonists include Mrs. Pratchett, the
Headmasters of his schools, and the older boys who are put in charge of
him while at Repton.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the story is that Dahl is inclined toward playfulness
and troublemaking but must go through a school system in which sadistic
school officials and older boys are hellbent on disciplining any violation of
decorum.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when Dahl is old enough to leave school
forever and is free to live without the threat of discipline hanging over his
head.