Book Title: The Witches
Author: Roald Dahl
The story The Witches is about an eight-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother, who is a witchophile. A witchophile is a person who studies witches and knows a lot about them. His grandmother tells him a lot about the witches, for example, how to recognise them.
In the story, the boy faces a challenging problem. He plays with his mice in the hotel. He hides at the back of a room. Unfortunately, this room is reserved for the Annual Meeting of The Witches. He hears about a horrible plan, which is going to turn all the children in England into mice by putting the Formula 86 into candies and chocolate. At the same time, he tries his best to keep silent as everyone knows that the witches hate children a lot, but all of the witches can scent Roald. The witches catch him out and pour the Formula 86 directly down into his throat. In a moment, he turns into a little mouse…
The boy thinks that he should be concerned about the future of the children in England so he rushes back to his room, and tells everything to his grandmother. He and his grandmother then steal a bottle of Formula 86 from the witches’ room and take revenge on them. He is very small now so he can dash into the kitchen nimbly. He jumps, hops, hooks his tail around a handle and swings his body. He reaches the shelf which is just above the soup that is reserved for the witches. He pours the whole bottle of the Formula 86 into the pot of the soup immediately. Finally, all of the witches drink the soup and turn into mice within seconds.
The boy in the story is very brave. Although he turns into a tiny mouse, his courage is never reduced. No matter how dangerous it is, he still dares to rush into the witches’ room to steal the bottle of Formula 86. Though he is very puny now, he still has to carry an enormous bottle. It is not easy. Moreover, he runs up against a number of witches once he wants to leave. Yet he is not frightened. He runs like lightning towards the door. Luckily, no one sees him. I appreciate his bravery.
The boy that Roald Dahl portrays is very optimistic and confident too. At the end of the story, although he cannot turn back into an ordinary boy, he does not feel upset. As a mouse, he can only live for nine years. He thinks it is wonderful that he can spend his whole life with his old grandmother. He plans to travel around the world with his grandmother in the nine years, and use the same method to kill all the witches in the world. He believes he can do it.
On the other hand, I think the boy relies on his grandmother too much. He is not independent and mature enough. Once he turns into a mouse, he does not know what to do. He cannot think of any method to save himself from danger. Instead, he just wants to seek advice from his grandmother.
I think Roald Dahl is telling us not to always trust people by their appearance, just like the witches in the story. It seems that they are ordinary women. We do not really know them until they take off their masks. They may be much horrible than we imagine. Moreover, we should not play tricks or hurt others, because we may eat our own bitter fruit one day. In the story, the witches invent Formula 86 which can turn children into small mice. But ultimately, they taste their own medicine.