Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

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Lamb to the Slaughterby Roald Dahl
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Lamb to the Slaughter

• R1E Develop vocabulary through text.
• Use context clues.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• R1F Apply pre-reading strategies to aid
  comprehension.
• Make predictions based on title.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• R1G During reading, utilize strategies to
  self-question and correct, infer, visualize,
  predict, and check using cueing systems
  meaning, structure, visual.
• Make predictions.
• Revise predictions.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• R1H Apply post-reading skills to comprehend and
  interpret text questions to clarify, reflect,
  analyze, draw conclusions, summarize, and
  paraphrase.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• R1I Compare, contrast, analyze, and evaluate
  connections.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• R2A Locate, interpret, and apply information in
  title, table of contents, and glossary, and
  recognize the text features of fiction, poetry,
  and drama in grade-level text.
• Understand situational and dramatic irony.
• Analyze situational and dramatic irony.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• R2C Use details from text to analyze character,
  plot, setting, point of view, and development of
  theme evaluate proposed solutions analyze the
  development of a theme across genres evaluate
  the effect of authors style and complex literary
  techniques.
• Write a character analysis.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• ambiguity
• Ambiguous situations have different possible
  results.

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Origin of the title
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Origin of the title
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• Excerpt from a 1950s Home Economics Textbook
• Compiled by Ms. Leslie Blankship
• Columbus, Ohio
• Have dinner ready Plan ahead even the night
  before to have a delicious meal on time. This is
  a way of letting him know that you have been
  thinking about him and are concerned about his
  needs. Most men are hungry when they come home
  and the prospects of a good meal are part of the
  warm welcome needed.

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• Prepare yourself Take 15 minutes to rest so you
  will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your
  makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh
  looking. He has just been with a lot of work-wary
  people. Be a little gay and a little more
  interesting. His boring day may need a lift.

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• Clear away the clutter Make one last trip
  through the main part of the house just before
  your husband arrives, gathering up school books,
  toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the
  tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a
  haven of rest and order, and it will give you a
  lift, too.

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• Prepare the children Take a few minutes to wash
  the children's hands and faces (if they are
  small), comb their hair, and if necessary, change
  their clothes. They are little treasures and he
  would like to see them playing the part.

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• Minimize all noise At the time of his arrival,
  eliminate all noise of washer, dryer, dishwasher,
  or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be
  quite. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm
  smile and be glad to see him.
• Some don'ts Don't greet him with problems or
  complaints. Don't complain if he's late for
  dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he
  might have gone through that day.

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• Make him comfortable Have him lean back in a
  comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the
  bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
  Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his
  shoes. Speak in a low, soft soothing and pleasant
  voice. Allow him to relax-unwind.

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• Listen to him You may have a dozen things to
  tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not
  the time. Let him talk first.
• Make the evening his Never complain if he does
  not take you out to dinner or to other places of
  entertainment. Instead, try to understand his
  world of strain and pressure, his need to be home
  and relax.

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• The goal Try to make your home a place of peace
  and order where your husband can renew himself in
  body and spirit.
• Source http//www.coax.net/people/lwf/TEXTBOOK.H
  TM

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Now its time to read
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Dark Humor

• Dark humor is the use of the grotesque, morbid,
  or absurd for darkly comic purposes.

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Dark Humor

• Dark humor became widespread in popular culture,
  especially in literature and film, beginning in
  the 1950s it remains popular toward the end of
  the twentieth century.
• Joseph Hellers novel Catch-22 (1961) is one of
  the best-known examples in American fiction.

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Dark Humor

• The image of the cheerful housewife suddenly
  smashing her husbands skull with the frozen
  joint of meat intended for his dinner is itself
  darkly humorous for its unexpectedness and the
  grotesque incongruity of the murder weapon.

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Dark Humor

• There is a morbid but funny double meaning, too,
  in Marys response to her grocers question about
  meat Ive got meat, thanks. I got a nice leg of
  lamb from the freezer.

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Dark Humor

• She did indeed get a leg of lamb from the
  freezer, and after she used it as a club, she
  found herself with a rather large portion of dead
  meat on her living-room floor.

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Dark Humor

• Also darkly funny is the grocers question about
  what she plans to give her husband afterwards,
  that is, for dessert. From Marys point of view,
  Patrick has already gotten his just desserts,
  and there will be no more afterwards for him!

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Dark Humor

• The ultimate example of dark humor in Lamb to
  the Slaughter is, of course, the spectacle of
  the policemen and detectives sitting around the
  Maloney kitchen table, speculating about the
  murder weapon while they unwittingly devour it.

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Setting

• The setting is symbolic Its domestic primness
  implies Marys having bought into a rather boring
  version of middle class happiness.

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Symbols

• The frozen leg of lamb is also symbolic and
  indeed constitutes the central symbol of the
  story. The piece of meat is already a token of
  violence an animal traditionally viewed as meek
  and gentle slaughtered for carnivorous
  consumption.

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Symbols

• The notion of a lamb, moreover, resonates with
  biblical symbols, such as the scapegoat mentioned
  in Leviticus, the ram that substitutes for Isaac
  in the tale of Abraham and Isaac, or Jesus
  himself, the Lamb of God.
• But Dahls story reverses the connotation of
  these biblical images.

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Themes

• BETRAYAL
• Patrick Maloneys unexplained decision to leave
  his pregnant wife. This violation of the
  marriage-vow is obviously not the only betrayal
  in the story, however.
• Marys killing of her husband is perhaps the
  ultimate betrayal.
• Her elaborately planned alibi and convincing lies
  to the detectives also constitute betrayal.

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Themes

• IDENTITY
• At the level of popular psychology, Dahl makes it
  clear through his description of the Maloney
  household that Mary has internalized the middle
  class ideal of a young mid-twentieth-century
  housewife, maintaining a tidy home and catering
  to her husband pouring drinks when the man
  finishes his day is a gesture that comes from
  movies and magazines of the day.

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Themes

• IDENTITY
• Marys sudden murderous action shatters the image
  that we have of her and that she seems to have of
  herself. Dahl demonstrates, in the deadly fall of
  the frozen joint, that identity can be fragile.

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Themes

• IDENTITY
• Once she shatters her own identity, Mary must
  carefully reconstruct it for protective purposes,
  as when she sets up an alibi by feigning a normal
  conversation with the grocer.

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Themes

• IDENTITY
• Dahl appears to suggest that, in essence, human
  beings are fundamentally nasty and brutish
  creatures capable of precipitate and bloody acts.

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Themes

• IDENTITY
• Then there are the police detectives, who pride
  themselves on their ability to solve a crime, but
  whom Mary sweetly tricks into consuming the main
  exhibit.
• Their identity, or at least their competency, is
  thrown into doubt.

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Themes

• LOVE AND PASSION
• At the beginning of Lamb to the Slaughter, Mary
  Maloney feels love and physical passion for her
  husband Patrick.
• She luxuriates in his presence, in the warm male
  glow that came out of him to her, and adores the
  way he sits, walks, and behaves.

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Themes

• LOVE AND PASSION
• Even far along into her pregnancy, she hurries to
  greet him, and waits on him hand and foot much
  more attentively, it appears from his reactions,
  than he would like.

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Themes

• LOVE AND PASSION
• Patrick is presumably motivated to leave his wife
  by an overriding passion for something or someone
  else.
• Marys mention of his failure to advance at work,
  and his own wish that she not make a fuss about
  their separation because It wouldnt be very
  good for my job indicate that it may be
  professional success that he desires.
• His treatment of his wife does not suggest that
  he loves her.

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Themes

• PASSIVITY
• The concept of passivity figures in the story.
• The first pages of the story portray Marys
  existence as almost mindlessly passive she sits
  and watches the clock, thinking that each minute
  brings her husband closer to her.

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Themes

• PASSIVITY
• She is content to watch him closely and try to
  anticipate his moods and needs.
• Patricks predictability up to this point is part
  of this passivity.
• The two are living a clockwork life against
  which, in some way, each ultimately rebels.
• Passivity appears as the repression of passion,
  and passion finds a way to reassert itself.

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Themes

• JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE
• The question of justice and injustice is directly
  related to the question of revenge. Lamb to the
  Slaughter narrates a train of injustices,
  beginning with Patricks betrayal of Mary and
  their marriage, peaking with Marys killing of
  Patrick, and finding its denouement in Marys
  deception of the investigating officers.

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Themes

• JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE
• Patrick acts unjustly (or so it must be assumed
  on the basis of the evidence) in announcing his
  abandonment of Mary, for this breaks the wedding
  oath Mary acts unjustly, in a way far exceeding
  her husbands injustice, in killing Patrick, and
  she compounds the injustice by concealing it from
  the authorities.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• ambiguity
• A wolf is trapped near town. Wildlife rescuers
  set it free in the mountains so it wont bother
  the townspeople. Will the wolf eventually cause
  trouble for these townspeople?
• ambiguous

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• ambiguity
• A student needs at least a B on a test to pass a
  class and stay on the basketball team. He studies
  hard and gets a 90 on his test. Does he stay on
  the basketball team?
• unambiguous

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Lamb to the Slaughter

• ambiguity
• A quality that allows readers to interpret a
  story or other work in more than one way.

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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
verbal (saying something)
irony (the opposite of what is expected)
verbal irony (saying something that is the
opposite of what is expected or true)
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
situational irony
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
dramatic irony
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
verbal irony
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
contradiction
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
ambiguous
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
subtleties
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
mood
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
tone
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
reliability of sources
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
bias
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
analogy
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
prefix
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
suffix
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
root word
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
plot
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
synonym
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
text structure
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
inference
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
cause and effect
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Academic vocabulary
antonym
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
When you come across an unfamiliar word, look for
clues in the contextthe words surrounding the
unknown word.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
In the following examples, the context clues help
you figure out the meaning of the unknown word.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
Similarly, when you are asked to write a sentence
using a new word, you should include a context
clue to demonstrate that you understand the word.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
DEFINITION Her instinct, or automatic response,
is to run away.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
RESTATEMENT She knows what the penalty is and
will accept her punishment.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
EXAMPLE Her action might bring relieffor
example, it would end the anger she felt.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
COMPARISON Ice cubes clinking in a glass sound
like pencils tapping on a table.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Context clues
CONTRAST Although she looks tranquil, she doesnt
feel peaceful.
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
administered
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
premises
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
luxuriate
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
placid
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
precinct
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
hospitality
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
anxiety
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Vocabulary
consoling