The Magic Finger

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She witnesses the Gregg family kill bird after bird (bringing home sixteen of them one day) and in her anger, she points at them with that magic finger. The titular "Magic Finger" is an ability she has that activates inadvertently whenever she gets intensely angry: the finger, shoots out a beam of energy, that apparently seeks out whoever has angered the girl, with unpredictable consequences. Ter um dedo mágico que entra em acção quando uma pessoa se irrita parece-me um poder muito útil e, nesta história de Roald Dahl, a jovem protagonista usa-o para dar uma lição a uma família de caçadores. They soon see the human-sized ducks cooking, sleeping, playing with toys, and even spot one holding Mr.

She tries to talk the Greggs out of it, but either they laugh at her, or they ignore her completely.This year, I've chosen a book about an 8-year-old girl that remains unnamed (first-person narrator), who lives next door to a family with two boys. Many were originally written for American magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker, then subsequently collected by Dahl into anthologies, gaining world-wide acclaim. In the novel's rising action, we are introduced to the girl with the magic finger, made aware of her hatred for hunting, introduced to her neighbors,,,, who love to hunt, and apprised of the fact that her magic finger is activated by her anger. The Greggs are forced to leave and build a nest in one of the trees in their garden where they spend the night.

After some flying, the Greggs notice four wild ducks “as big as men” with “great long arms, like men, instead of wings” going into their house (28). The young eight year old narrator is so enraged with her neighbour's hunting habits, that she turns the whole of the Gregg family into birds by the use of her magic finger. The narrator begins to feel a tingling in her finger and the anger filling her body; she rushes toward the lake. She is the first person the narrator uses her powers on, inadvertently turning her, partially, into a cat. The plot felt more than a little heavy-handed - with the Gregg family painted as complete and utterly evil.The story's narrator, an unnamed young girl, introduces herself and shares a little bit about her special abilities.

Gregg begs the ducks not to kill her, her husband or their children, right before one of the ducks speaks to them, revealing that her own children were killed by the Greggs on their last hunting trip. Aún no sea de sus mejores relatos, se lee de un tirón y siempre es un gusto ver las mismas críticas en las novelas de Roald Dahl. Dahl é meu pedagogo preferido, com a sua ética duvidosa e métodos radicais, mas esta história é a mais óbvia e simplista de todas as que já li dele.

Gregg, he tells her that he has changed his last name to Egg “in honour of my feathered friends” (60). Y es el caso de esta novela, que crítica la caza y el placer del ser humano de matar animales por entretenimiento. Mr Gregg tells the duck mother to give up shooting and he destroys all 3 guns with a big hammer, swearing never to hurt another duck, deer "or anything else again". A girl - who’s such a non-character she doesn’t even have a name; if she did it’d be “Plot Contrivance”!

It’s certainly thought-provoking and inspired an entire conversation with my family about eating meat and how we should be responsible and care for the animals we have. Not Roald Dahl at his finest - nevertheless a good short entertaining book with the usual great illustrations by Quentin Blake.Unfortunately, in the interaction with the Gregg family she becomes overwhelmed by her feelings and is not able to stop herself. We chose this book for a Literary Leaf as we love Roald Dahl and we know he represents a route into reading for so many children. This very short story makes for a perfect bedtime story, the same level of surrealism and a strong anti hunting message to boot. Plus, you never know when your psycho neighbor is going to flip out and and punish you with her "Magic Finger" (does that sound dirty to anyone else?