Boy
A MEMOIR BY ROALD DAHL
CHARACTERISTICS OF A MEMOIR
Memoirs have unique characteristics. The characteristics of a memoir are focusing on a brief period of time, their nonfiction, but like a story. Also they have literary devices and figurative language. Finally, it is about an important event in his/her life. Boy By Roald Dahl has all of these characteristics.
FOCUSES ON A BRIEF PERIOD OF TIME
In the book Boy Tales Of Childhood The writer focuses mainly on 14 years of his life when he faces a lot of hardships and problems in his childhood.
"Boy Tales of Childhoods" FOLLOWS A STORY STRUCTURE LIKE ALL MEMOIRS
The confict
One of the conflicts in the memoir is when he gets adenoids in his mouth and nose and can't breathe regular.
The Climax
When the doctor pokes the tiny blade into the top of his mouth and flesh and blood comes out. The flesh and blood were his adenoids.
The Resolution
After he got his adenoids removed he was able to breathe better through his mouth and nose.
Literary Devices/Figurative Language
Examples
Similes and metaphors bring the story to life. In Boy an example of figurative language is "Little Thwaites seemed to lift about a foot into the air and yelled "ow-w-w-w-w-w!" and straightened up like elastic." I think this simile means that his body/back got straightened when they hit/whipped him. Another example is "The headmaster had orange dyed hair." This is when Roald was describing the headmaster.
Writers thoughts and feelings
An example of the writers feelings is when the headmaster always gets his stick and hits/whips the pupils whenever they do something bad. Boy explains how it feels to get whipped by the headmaster.(It bleeds).
Important Quote/Theme Statment
In Boy they have corporal punishment. "This was the man who used to deliver the most vicious beatings to the boys under his care! This means that if the pupils did something bad then they would get a beating on there butt. This shaped his future in many ways, cause in the story it talks about that Dahl cannot sit in one place for too long cause if he does then his rear end starts to hurt.