How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?
The text is mainly about the childhood life of the author himself, Roald Dahl. It compiles some interesting event that happened throughout his life ranging from 1 years old to 20 years old. It could be say as a journey as a kid because it reflects the common events that almost all kid will go through during their school life.
Being a kid of course, we tend to be rebellious. Roald and his friends made fun of Mrs. Pratchett whom they dislike by putting a dead mouse in a sweet jar. As a result, Mrs. Pratchett went to their school and complained to their headmaster. Roald and his friends were then received cane punishment by the headmaster.
At St Peter’s, which is a boarding school, Roald like many other kids was homesick. He even tried to pretend to be sick and wanted to be send back home. Every night when sleeping, he would face in the direction to his home to ease his homesickness.
In addition, Roald also faced a hard time at school. Captain Hardcastle who was his Latin teacher was a very strict man. There’s an incident where he accused Roald for cheating during prep but in truth, Roald never cheat, he just asked his friend to borrow him a nib. In the end, Roald received Stripe and caning. During his time at Repton Public School, he was bullied by the Boazers by been instructed to do all the things the Boazers ordered them to.
The story revolves around the school life of Roald Dahl. As can be seen from the text, school practices body punishment. There are total of 3 canning event happened in the text!! First, was the punishment Roald got for making fun of Mrs. Pratchett. Second, was a false accusation made by Captain Hardcastle towards Roald for cheating and Roald received cane for that. Lastly, was a vivid canning scene which Roald witnessed in Repton Public School.
In addition, in school, the grown-ups (headmaster, teachers, prefects, matron) always overwhelm the students. For example, Boazers, the prefects in Repton can asked their junior to do whatever they want them to do and they cannot refuse to do it. If they did not do as exactly what the Boazers asked them to do, the Boazers had the authority to send them to the headmaster for punishment. Often, there’s always discrimination happened on the juniors.
Other than that, there was a case of teacher being unkind to student. For example, Captain Hardcastle, who likes to pick out a student’s mistake and use it as reason to punish them. Roald was caught by Captain Hardcastle when he is talking to his friend who actually was asking to borrow a nib from his friend, Captain Hardcastle without further investigation, boldly accused Roald for cheating. The headmaster too, although Roald had try to tell the truth to him, he refused to listen and investigate the actual incident. Instead, he caned Roald.
What quality do you admire in a character?
In my opinion, Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg who is the mother of Roald Dahl portrayed several good qualities in the text. Roald refer her mother as Mama in the text. Mama was very concern about her children’s education. She was determined to send her children to English schools as it was her husband’s wish before he died. For example, when she found out that Roald has been punished physically, she felt frustrated and went to find the headmaster to complain. After this incident, Mama was even more determined to send Roald to an English school.
Besides, Mama was a very calm person. During Roald’s Christmas holiday, his 21-year-old ancient half sister brought him and other family member including Mama using her newly bought motor car. Unfortunately, they met an accident and Roald’s nose was cut. He was bleeding seriously. All of them were shocked and panicked, except Mama. She remained calm and asked her daughter to fetch them to nearest surgeon.
In addition, Mama took up the great responsibility of taking care for the whole family after her husband died of pneumonia. Even though there are so many children to be taken care of, she tried her best to let none of them being left out in the family. For example, Mama arranged all the things for their whole family when they were going on to the summer vacation trip.
How does the text develop your understanding of the world?
As can be seen from the text, in school, grown-ups (headmaster, teachers) overwhelmed the children (students). For example, headmaster in Repton Public School did not listen to Roald’s explanation of being accused by Captain Hardcastle for cheating and investigate further of what actually happened, instead, he trusted the teacher’s word blindly.
This happens in our everyday life too!! Teacher’s words are always the right one and the student’s are always wrong, even though the teachers make mistake when judging, they still considered as the right one. In order to produce fair and just treatment towards the students, the authority should spend time investigate the whole incident instead of just listening to one side only.
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