A critical analysis of Roald Dahl - Essay Example

However, a sense of the failures of family and the retribution that could be unleashed should magic be real can be found within the pages of his amazing work Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has inspired two films based on the book. These films are somewhat different in their treatment of the story, but the result has touched several generations of film buffs as well as given Dahl a wider audience for his delightful tales. Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, as well as The Fantastic Mr. Fox have all found their way onto film.

The stories by Dahl are highly unique and original in such a way as to have a noticeable exceptionality in the way in which they are accepted. Peter Hollindale (2008), relates a story of a British comedy that begins with a man reading a story to two children The story becomes increasingly disturbing until he turns it over and checks the cover. With a sigh of relief, as if understanding, he says “Oh, it’s by Roald Dahl” (271). This was the power of his extraordinary point of view. Much is forgiven in the way of the dark tales because the writing is such that it makes sense by the end.

This is not to say that there isn’t a great deal of criticism over his work. According to Steinberg and Kinchella (2004), the story of Matilda has an aspect of disrespect toward parents within the content that has been an area of concern for some parents in reading it to their children (185). Another aspect of Dahl’s work that creates criticism is in the way that there is a defined separation between children and their parents and that there is a defined right and wrong type of family that suggests that all families should be alike (Alston 2008: 64).

This sense of separation is further exacerbated by a sense that adults tend to be less intelligent sometimes than their children, encouraging a point of view that children should trust themselves over the influence of a parental decision. Still, the