The effect friendships have on a child's development - Essay Example

However, like Roald Dahl writes beautifully in his renowned book Matilda, friendship is not really confined to one or more persons. Children are affected easily by the totality of their external environments and this also thus concludes the various kinds of interactions that they undergo in everyday life. In Matilda, the young girl befriends her books due to the lack of people that she is able to communicate with. Her brother does not prove to be a good friend and neither do her parents, thus she takes to her books and finds that those books turn her into a very gifted individual full of faith and belief in the better things in life.

He writes, “Sometimes Matilda longed for a friend, somebody like the kind, courageous people in her books. But it occurred to her that talking dragons and princesses with hair long enough to climb, such people would only exist in storybooks.” (Dahl, Roald) this goes to show the kind of need that the young girl had in her life for someone that would talk back to her and give her advice and listen to her little whims and fancies as well. Children usually imitate whatever happens around them and so if a parent sees his child overdoing something or doing things that are unusual of him, they may come to the conclusion that he must have picked it up from somewhere.

At the young ages between three to about ten, the kind of friends that a child has makes a great amount of difference on his mind and health. These friends help to shape the child’s character when the parents are not around and help to build a sense and level of confidence within the child. No child is able to communicate everything he or she wants to their parents, and thus, they sometimes find the comfort in doing so with their friends. Most friends even listen and try to help if someone is in some kind of trouble, but of course this stage comes in later after further development of the child’s mind.

Roald Dahl wrote a book called Matilda which was about a young girl born into the wrong family in the sense that she had nothing in common with her parents or brother. Matilda was very curious about the world and loved to read and know more. She wanted to go to school and get educated and make friends. "Both Matilda and Lavender were enthralled. It was quite clear to them that they were at this moment standing in the presence of a master. Here was somebody who had brought the art of skulduggery to the highest point of perfection, somebody, moreover, who was willing to risk life and limb in pursuit of her calling.

They gazed in wonder at this goddess, and suddenly even the boil on her nose was no longer a blemish but a badge of courage." (Dahl, Roald) From these lines it is clear that Matilda had found a friend and confidante in Lavender and in doing so, they were comfortable in carrying out tasks that even they felt were wrong, however they did it anyway because of a kind of backing that they had from each other. She could confide in Lavender and was sure that the latter would keep her secrets. This is how children get affected by their friends and are able to do things together with a better sense of confidence.

Just by having someone around them helping them, they