The Wish by Roald Dahl (NEB XI)

The Wish by Roald Dahl

About The Author

q  Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter pilot

q  He was born on September 13, 1916 A.D. And died on November 23, 1990.

q Dahl was born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents and spent most of his life in England.

q  His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.

q  He has been referred to as “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century”

q  His fantastic novels include James and the giant peach, Charlie and the chocolate factory, fantastic Mr. Fox, Danny, the champion of the world, George's marvelous medicine, the BFG, the witches, Matilda, etc.

Theme: The story's main theme is confidence triumphing over fear rather than greed, and unnecessary dread is dangerous and influences beings to make bad decisions, causing humans to reflect on the challenges of growing up and how they deal with these challenges as they progress through life. The character of a profoundly imaginative young boy encourages us to reflect on the limitations of our youth.

Characters: A young unnamed boy and his mother.

Setting: This story depicted the setting of the house's front door stairs and the interior hall with the large carpet. This imaginative game involves crossing the carpet of the hall, stepping on the correct colors, and reaching inside from outside the front door's stairs.

Plot

Exposition: The exposition depicts a boy who is alone and picking at a scab. The youngster notices a large carpet with various colors on it. He imaginatively believes that each color represents something.

Rising action: The youngster starts to shake as he moves across the yellow area of the carpet. Later, he started to feel fear. He couldn't go back now that he was halfway through. He walked over the carpet despite his fear of the pitch-black space in front of him.

Climax: The boy ought to choose between going left and right. He decides on the left side even though it is more challenging because there are fewer dark areas there. When his foot is one centimeter from the black, the youngster steps onto the following yellow. The most exciting portion of the narrative occurs here because he is on the verge of being bitten by a snake but is miraculously spared. He could have turned right, but he chooses to walk left since he is afraid of snakes. The snake immediately glances upward in his mind to see if he is about to touch it. The boy in panic quickly says; “I’m not touching you! You must not bite me!”

Falling Action: The following stage in his trip over the carpet is a distance-consuming one. He chooses the choice to go slowly, which causes him to get caught in the splits motion. He attempts to stand back up but is unable to. He makes an effort to transfer all of his weight on his front foot, but he is unable to do so and is trapped.

Resolution: Under the boy, the snakes begin to move around. His attempts to maintain his equilibrium by flailing his arms fail as he begins to sway. As he slowly begins to tumble, he plummets faster and faster into the darkness. As he touches the dark, he lets out a loud shout. His mother is laughing for him outside in the sunshine, well behind the house as the story abruptly comes to an end.

Summing Up: In the story “The Wish,” a small kid imagines that his carpet is alive with snakes and flames. Both the child's wish and an inventive game plan are important. The child in this narrative uses the red carpet's hues to play his imaginative game. It's pretty difficult to play his innovative game, which is about life and death. The narrative explores the young child's imagination by going inside his head. This story is about a young guy who experienced a traumatic event when he was a child. An unnamed child is seen examining the scab on his kneecap while bending forward. He delicately picks up his scab from the edge of the red carpet. When he gets close to the scab, the carpet's various colors catch his eye. He imaginatively imagined that each color stood for something, and in his mind, the red spots stood for coal that could burn him, the black spots for poisonous snakes that might bite him, and the yellow spots for the only safe zone where he could step and cross the large carpet to get inside, where he will be given a puppy for his centenary.

Hence the youngster starts his journey. He wobbles but stretches out his arm to hold himself in a stable position. The initial half is casual but reaches some challenging parts and requires large steps. As he comes to a fork in the road, he turns left even though it is tough since dark spots are present, and approaches the midway point, he realizes he can neither turn around nor leap off. Then he starts to feel his chest tightening with panic. He takes another step toward the only nearby yellow spot, and at that point, the black patch is just centimeters from his foot. To observe him, a snake stirs and lifts its head. He tries to balance himself, but it doesn't work, and when he touches the black, he begins to cry. The narrative concludes with his mother looking for him behind a house outdoors in the sunshine.

Analysis of the Story: In the story "The Wish," a small kid imagines that fire and snakes are alive on his carpet. The author's use of metaphor and imagery encourages readers to consider how delicate our childhood innocence is. Unnecessary fear is dangerous because it leads people to make poor decisions. The pictures and metaphor stand in for the difficulties and difficulties he must overcome as he develops. Dahl presents vivid obstacles like the scab, red stains on the carpet, black areas, etc. to support the metaphor. He encounters numerous barriers on the way to adulthood as he works to achieve his goal.