Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl - Literature review Example

Roald Dahl’s short story entitled "Lamb to the Slaughter" is a classic story about getting away with murder. It may not be a good source of the story to learn morals because it basically conveyed the idea of how one can get away with murder and even subtly mocked at the law enforcers who are supposed to catch the murderer. And the story is most strange because the law enforcers ate the very weapon or murder that they were looking for. The story was about Mary Maloney who was pregnant and learned through her husband Patrick’s behaviors and subtle language (such as she will be taken cared of the child) that he will leave her.

Then she offered to prepare the dinner for her husband Patrick where he refused because he is going out. And when he stared out of the window, Mary Maloney mindlessly strikes him at the back of his head and killed her husband Patrick. After this, Mary realized the horror of what she did that she just killed her husband. Thoughts raced through her head and she realized that she cannot go to jail to spare her child. She pondered then what should she do to get away with murder and concluded that she has to make an alibi so that she will not be implicated with the murder of her husband.

She went to a grocery store as an alibi and talked to people to indicate that she is out of the house when her husband Patrick was killed. She went back home and acted in surprise and called the police to report the murder of her husband. When the police arrived and investigated, they never suspected that it was, in fact, Mary who killed her husband with the frozen lamb leg. Worst, Mary offered the lamb to the policemen that she was supposed to cook for her husband Patrick. The policeman then ate the very weapon that they are looking for that could identify the murderer of Patrick Maloney.

Thus in this narrative, the lamb or the frozen lamb leg to be specific was connected to the slaughter of Patrick Maloney by being the tool of murder that the policemen were made to ate.The lamb, however, was more than the weapon of slaughter in this story. It is symbolic that even those seemingly harmless things can become a weapon of slaughter. Does it bear to ask why did Roald Dahl use frozen leg lamb? Why not beef’s leg or pig’s leg which are bigger? It is because lamb symbolizes meekness and harmlessness which could fool people such as the police who were made to eat the lamb which was the weapon that they were looking for.

Who would have thought in the first place that a lamb could be used as a weapon to kill? Not only that it is harmless as an animal but also delectable as a food.This concept of using seemingly harmless things such as food as a weapon is no longer new. Throughout history food has been used as a weapon to kill enemies because again, food looks so harmless in addition to a necessity that we all have to eat. Thus, foods are weaponized by adding poison to them so that they could kill the unsuspecting enemy.

The type of poison that can be added is wide-ranging that can include anything from adding to bacteria, viruses, and chemical compounds to make the foods that are supposed to nourish to become lethal and deadly.The modern use of food as a weapon may no longer be as a batting tool to strike its victim just like Mary did to her husband Patrick.