Lamb to the Slaughter Thesis + 1
16 August, 2013
Lamb to the Slaughter
In the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, author Roald Dahl conveys his feelings that the troubles in life can be solved by analyzing the situation before acting, that you should appreciate what you have, and that ultimately that everyone is a lamb, all with the power to break free of their control. To reinforce his lesson on planning out a situation, Roald Dahl uses examples of the outcomes of situations with and without rational thinking; he first begins with an example of the negative effects of rash decisions. “…Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause…brought it down as hard as she could.” In the heat of the moment, Mary was blinded from proper judgment by her onslaught of emotions towards her husband. If Mary had stopped and thought rationally about her predicament, she most likely would not have to deal with the fact that she murdered her husband. On the other hand, Roald Dahl gives his main character a chance to redeem her previous poor decision making. “What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did the kill them both-mother and child?” Once Mary came to the conclusion that her baby’s life was on the line, she was not going to take a chance. She calculated her actions, and after thinking about the best solution, concocted a solution to her crisis. She cleverly creates an alibi for herself, demonstrating the positive outcomes of rational thinking. Also, Mary once again demonstrates the advantages of processing a situation before acting when she decides to rid herself of the murder weapon. “Please eat it…It’d be a favor to me if you’d eat it up. Then you can go on with your work again afterwards.” Knowing that the officers are searching for the weapon and she still has it, Mary develops an extraordinary plan to rid herself of the evidence. Her well thought out plan emphasize the positive outcomes of rational thinking by not only riding her of the lamb leg, but by also
Lamb to the Slaughter
In the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, author Roald Dahl conveys his feelings that the troubles in life can be solved by analyzing the situation before acting, that you should appreciate what you have, and that ultimately that everyone is a lamb, all with the power to break free of their control. To reinforce his lesson on planning out a situation, Roald Dahl uses examples of the outcomes of situations with and without rational thinking; he first begins with an example of the negative effects of rash decisions. “…Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause…brought it down as hard as she could.” In the heat of the moment, Mary was blinded from proper judgment by her onslaught of emotions towards her husband. If Mary had stopped and thought rationally about her predicament, she most likely would not have to deal with the fact that she murdered her husband. On the other hand, Roald Dahl gives his main character a chance to redeem her previous poor decision making. “What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did the kill them both-mother and child?” Once Mary came to the conclusion that her baby’s life was on the line, she was not going to take a chance. She calculated her actions, and after thinking about the best solution, concocted a solution to her crisis. She cleverly creates an alibi for herself, demonstrating the positive outcomes of rational thinking. Also, Mary once again demonstrates the advantages of processing a situation before acting when she decides to rid herself of the murder weapon. “Please eat it…It’d be a favor to me if you’d eat it up. Then you can go on with your work again afterwards.” Knowing that the officers are searching for the weapon and she still has it, Mary develops an extraordinary plan to rid herself of the evidence. Her well thought out plan emphasize the positive outcomes of rational thinking by not only riding her of the lamb leg, but by also