Children Stories Essay, Research Paper

In reading a novel children are often captured by the vivid imagination that the author is able to create in their book. In writing for a child the author must some how capture the attention of the child so that the child has the will to read further. Roald Dahl has written numerous books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches and Matilda whereby imagination plays a key role in capturing the child’s attention. How is an author capable of incorporating imagination throughout a novel? Roald Dahl’s novels are filled with imaginative situations, characters and devices that capture the attention of readers of all ages.

To begin with, Roald Dahl creates numerous amounts of outrageously imaginative situations that make each one of his novels unique and exciting to read. For example, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Grandpa Joe expresses his amazement that “people are actually going to be allowed to go inside the factory”(p.21), which creates a tension in the readers mind of how incredible the chocolate factory actually is. The chocolate factory is where all the imaginative situations occur in this novel. The chocolate room is where Augustus, a fat boy that eats like a pig, is intrigued by the chocolate that flows like a river and ends up falling “into the river” (p.76) due to his need to eat the chocolate. Furthermore in entering the gum room, Violet, the world’s champion gum chewer, must test Mr. Wonka’s knew gum ball but upon chewing this piece of gum Violet finds herself changing into “a gigantic blueberry”(p.103). Violet inflates like a giant balloon and her skin tone changes to blue and purple. These are two cases in which children disobeyed rules and found themselves a part of an imaginative situation. Secondly, The Witches, is filled with creative and mind boggling situations. In looking at this novel the reader can be amazed at the fact that “two hundred” (p.63) women are in fact attending a witch conference. How often in our everyday lives does the media report about some sort of secret witch conference that is taking place somewhere around the world. So how far fetched is the whole idea of a witch conference? Moreover, when Bruno, a young boy, eats a chocolate bar that was given to him by a witch, within a matter of time Bruno finds himself in a very awkward situation. Upon devouring this morceau of chocolate he finds himself changing into “a small brown mouse” (p.104). One could only hope that in reality chocolate couldn’t have that affect or the earth would be over populated with billions of mice. Finally, Matilda, is also filled with many scenes of imagination. For example, when Matilda is in class she is able to concentrate on a glass filled with water hereby causing the glass to fall over and the water to “splash all over” (p.166) the desk. For any human to possess mind powers giving this individual the ability to perform certain tasks is a little out of the ordinary don’t you think? Furthermore, Matilda received great joy out of playing practical jokes on her somewhat degrading family members. One of the pranks pulled off involved Matilda getting a parrot and placing it up the chimney. When Matilda’s family was watching TV the parrot began to talk, “rattle my bones”(p.47) causing the parents to believe that their house was haunted. This is very imaginative in the sense that how often are you going to witness a five-year old coming up with such outrageous pranks? Children enjoy imaginative situations because it causes them to forget about reality.

Roald Dahl also presents many imaginative characters, which help make his novels complete. For instance in Charlie and the chocolate factory, Mr. Willy Wonka, the owner of the chocolate factory, is a very suspicious character. Mr. Wonka is the “candy-making genius whom nobody has seen for the last ten years” (p.22). He surprises the world when announcing that he’ll let five lucky winners visit his great chocolate factory. Or take the Oompa-Loompas a bunch of small men “no larger than medium sized dolls” (p.70) that are from a far away land called “Loompaland”(p.71). Even Mrs. Salt a geography teacher has never heard of this place. These miniature men are Mr. Wonka’s little helpers sort of like Santa Clause’s elves. Secondly, in The Witches, Roald Dahl sets us straight by saying that witches “dress in ordinary clothes”(p.7) and not in black cloaks. Witches have always been perceived as being women that wear black hats, black outfits and their main mode of transport involves riding on brooms but Roald Dahl looks at them very differently. He doesn’t follow the traditional views but rather he establishes his own idea of what a witch is making it all the more imaginative. Furthermore, Roald Dahl refers to Bruno as a “mouse-person” (p.195) when he is radically transformed into a mouse. After much analysis it is fairly safe to say that there aren’t many mouse persons present on the face of this earth. Finally, Matilda, has the horrendous character Miss Trunchbell, the principle of the school, who is malicious and is in fact a child’s worst nightmare. Miss Trunchbell constantly grabs kids by their ears and hair inflicting great pain in any given situation. She is a former Olympic hammer thrower and sometimes perceives the child as being her hammer sending them “sailing like a rocket” (p.115) over the playground fence. Furthermore, Matilda is a little out of the ordinary. She is capable of performing a form of magic which, leads to the downfall of Miss Trunchbell. Matilda when performing her magic had eyes that glittered “like two stars”(p.221) giving a magical image to the novel. Strong and imaginative characters are needed in any book to bring out the story the author is trying to tell whether it is fiction or non-fiction.

Roald Dahl also presents many imaginative devices that don’t exist but that he is capable of making sound so real. To begin with, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, each one of the five rooms that are visited by the lucky winners consists of a different and very original invention. For example, Mr. Wonka invents the everlasting gobstopper that well “never get any smaller”(p.94) and that will “never disappear”(p.94). Who has ever heard of a so-called candy that one may suck on for days on end and it would never disappear! Moreover, Mr. Wonka develops a candy known as hair toffee. Upon eating this candy a “thick silky beautiful crop of hair” begins to grow all over your face. If this were the case then men would surely have a cure for baldness! Secondly, in The Witches, the witches develop the potion to change children into mice called the formula 86 delayed action mouse-maker. Furthermore, in order for the grandmother to change Bruno back into a human she must first get a hold of the “gruntles’ egg”(p.204). Instead of following the normal ingredients like the eye of a tiger or the leg of a frog Roald Dahl dulves into his imagination to create his own miraculous ingredient. Finally, Matilda, has one device that could possibly frighten the child from school for life, it is called the Chokey. The Chokey, is like a closet that a child only has enough room to stand in. On each of the four walls there are “bits of broken glass”(104) that stick out and hinder the movement of any child that is put in there. This chamber is in Miss Trunchbell’s office and it is used as a torture chamber. Imaginative devices are a key item in keeping the readers interest for the reader has more often than not never heard of such an item.

Imagination plays a vital role in keeping the readers attention. Roald Dahl is a fabulous writer because he is able to relate with the child through his imagination. Roald Dahl is capable of using his wild and imaginative ideas to create a wonderful children’s novel. He has incorporated imaginative situations, characters and devices, making his novels exciting from cover to cover. Good fiction novels should contain imaginative situations, characters and devices because it is an entertaining way for the author to connect with the reader.