LRU-2150, kull-12/13

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Summary

Most likely, most of us are familiar with Matilda, a book by the famous almost -Norwegian author Roald Dahl. To make a good story short, Matilda is born into a family who is neglecting her, and refusing to offer her any sort of support or love. Matilda loves reading books, and quickly grows fond of her new school, and especially her teacher Ms. Honey. Ms. Honey is helpless against the book`s antagonist Ms. Trunchbull. Have you noticed the names? Anyway, Matilda and Ms. Honey wins the conflict against Ms. Trunschbull, and Matilda get to move away from her parents.

Themes

From my point of view, there are arguably many visible themes in Matilda. Firstly, Ms Thrunchball demonstrate abuse of power in several situations. For instance, when she threw one of the pupils out of the window.

 

Secondly, child abuse/neglect is clear in Matildas parents approach to upbringing of Matilda. “Just keep your nasty mouth shut, will you! (Dahl, 1988). Moreover, the parents demonstrate lack of respect for Matildas interests. 

Thirdly, what I have come to believe, as one of the most significant themes of Matilda is the importance of knowledge. To Matilda a book is equivalent to a safehouse, a place where you can dream, and escaping her parents. Furthermore, does it provide her with knowledge, intelligence, motivation, hence do books symbolise great importance. 

It seems that by using round characters such as Ms. Trunchball and Mr. Wormwood, the author seek to recommend and promote certain social, moral and political beliefs to the reader. From my point of view this is a didactically way of subtly convey children, by (Gamble, 2013) referred to as an explicit way of promoting an ideology. The reader is getting access to both direct-dialogue and Matilda`s feelings. As a result, the reader has to make up his own mind about the moral, or the theme.

Teaching programme

So far, I have discussed the theme, but how can working with Matilda be of any relevance in my teaching programme?

Kunnskapsløftet entails a section about culture, society and literature. One of the sentences explains that pupils must read children’s literature in English, and be able to convers about the different themes and content. Hence, the pupils could write bio -poem being Matilda or Ms. Honey (Lillevangstu, Tønnessen, & Fhall-Larssøn, 2011), exploring the characters and their feelings. Additionally, the pupils could read the profiles aloud in class or in small groups. Additionally, the pupils could draw a timeline based on the happenings from the book, working on their post-reading skills. Moreover, I could use Matilda or Ms. Honey`s profile to discuss the importance of respect, empathy or kindness. Ideally, this teaching-scheme could lead to a better learning- environment, since the class feels more secure amongst each other. My recommendation would be to use Matilda to work on oral skill among the students, human-relations or characters, rather than explicit writing or grammar skills. The book entails a lot of text, and many low-frequent words, which could make the book too difficult for many pupils. Therefore, may radio/readers theatre be of more adequate activities, which 

Bilography

Gamble, N. (2013). Exploring children`s litterature. London: SAGE.

Lillevangstu, M., Tønnessen, E. S., & Fhall-Larssøn, H. (2011). Inn i teksten : ut i livet. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

Utdanningsdirektoratet. (u.å). National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and Training. Retrieved 08.11.2015, from http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-4.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng

Dahl, R. (1988). Matilda. London: Puffin Books.