The Wish: Summary of the Story & Exercise
Summary of The Wish
Short Summary
Roald Dahl, an English writer, wrote this short story entitled "The Wish." This story is entirely based on the main character's imagination as a youngster. The story depicted the main character's inventive actions while playing a red carpet game. This is a fictional narrative with no names given to the characters. At the conclusion of the narrative, the mother of the main character is mentioned.
To summarize this story, readers are confused by the term "The Wish." After successfully navigating the red carpet and entering the venue, the main character had hoped to receive a puppy for his birthday. However, on his Birthday, the child stumbles in a black area on the carpet and loses his imaginary game, putting an end to his search for the puppy.
This narrative showed the setting of the entrance door's steps as well as the inside of the hall, which included a large red carpet. This inventive game entails walking the red carpet in the corridor, stepping on the correct colours, and being put. This innovative game involves traversing the red carpet in the corridor, stepping on the correct colours, and reaching inside via the front door's stairwell.
Main Summary of the Story The Wish
In the very first scene of the story, we see a nameless child inspecting the scab on his kneecap. He was sitting alone on the stairwell of his front door. He had a dark scab on an old injury on his kneecap. He knelt down to study it more thoroughly. After much deliberation, he chose to remove the scab from his incision. He delicately picked off his scab with his nail and placed it on his thigh. He stroked the circle of his wound with his finger and flipped the scab.
The scab landed on the red carpet's border. Different colours of the carpet drew his eye as he walked closer to the scab. In those carpet colours, he imagined a variety of things. Using the many colours of the carpet, he devised a game strategy. In his imagination, the reddish dots resembled a mass of embers that could burn him. The black patches on the ground were deadly snakes that could bite him and kill him. The yellow patches were just safe zones for him to step inside and cross the massive carpet to get inside. He'd be given a puppy for his birthday if he could just get inside.
To achieve his goal, the boy imagined a really difficult and dreadful game plan (The Wish of completing his game and getting a puppy). In his imagined game, the boy began to progress. He walked forward, only stepping on the yellow spots. He continued on his way, carefully stepping into the safe zone (Yellow colour). He began to wobble as he approached the halfway point. Waving his arms helped him maintain his equilibrium. He didn't take the required precautions. He began to feel panicked because he couldn't turn around due to his body position. He was terrified of the dark patches (Poisonous Snakes) ahead of him.
He stayed for a long time in the yellow safe zone. He paused and considered his options for moving forward. He was forced to keep going because he was afraid of not receiving the puppy. He made good use of his wits, hesitated, and took a cautious step forward. The child had to make a selection only a step ahead of the midway point. He had to decide whether he wanted to move to the left or right. He found it more difficult to tread on the left side, but there were fewer dark areas there. As a result, he chose to proceed on the left side.
On the yellow spot, he took his next step. He accidentally touched the dark area, which was only a centimetre away. He was terrified because he was about to be bitten by a snake. His good fortune, on the other hand, saved him. He had the choice to pick once more. He could have gone right, but he chose to walk left due to his dread of black deadly snakes.
The snake, in his fantasy, looked up to see if he had touched it or not. The child said, "In a panicked tone," "I'm not going to touch you! Please don't bite me! You know I'm not going to touch you!" He went on with his journey. His following move was a long one. He made the decision to take it carefully. When he jumped ahead, though, his feet landed on the wide spots. He attempted but failed to return. He tried but failed to move his entire weight to his front foot. He was firmly imprisoned.
The snakes began to move about beneath his feet. He began to wobble as a result of his anxiety. He tried flailing his arms to balance himself, but it didn't work. Slowly, he began to sink into the darkness. As he touched the black, he let out a loud scream. His mother was hunting for him outside in the sunshine, well behind the house.
Who is the Writer of The Wish?
The writer of this story is Roald Dahl. He was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter pilot. His books have been sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents. He served in the Royal force during the Second World war. The story “The Wish” is about a young child and his imaginative game of carpet. This story has presented the child’s wish as well as the frightening event of his childhood.
Exercise
Understanding The Text
Answer the following questions.
a. What did the child do to the scab on his knee?
Answer: The child gently picked the scab off his cut with his fingernails and put it on his thigh. Finally, he flipped it with his finger.
b. What kind of effect did the carpet have on the child?
Answer: The child became extremely amazed to see the red carpet. He had never really noticed it before in such a way. The different colors of carpet seemed to brighten mysteriously and spring out at him in a most dazzling way. He was thoroughly lost in those colors and his imagination.
c. What was he afraid of while walking across the carpet?
Answer: He was afraid of the black poisonous snakes and the red coals while walking across the carpet.
d. What motivated and encouraged the child to start and continue on his journey?
Answer: His wish of getting a puppy on his birthday or as a birthday gift motivated and encouraged the child to start and continue on his journey.
e. What did the child see as he looked down on the black patterns of the carpet?
Answer: The child saw different colours brightening mysteriously. He was lost in different colours’ spots. He kept on thinking in his imagination about the colours and their different forms. Hence, the child saw the poisonous snake with the oily body of snake arising to catch or bite him as he looked down on the black patterns of the carpet.
Reference to The Context
a. The writer creates two voices in the story. Who are they?
Answer: Yes, the writer creates two voices in the story and they were (a narrator) and the voice of the young boy i.e. the child.
b. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“…the black parts are snakes, poisonous snakes, adders mostly, and cobras, thick like tree-trunks around the middle, and if I touch one of them, I’ll be bitten and I’ll die before tea time. And if I get across safely, without being burnt and without being bitten, I will be given a puppy for my birthday tomorrow.”
i. What does ‘the black part’ mean?
Answer: The black part means the difficulty, challenges and suffering in the journey.
ii. Who is the speaker?
Answer: The speaker is a young boy.
iii. Why doesn’t the speaker want to be burnt?
Answer: He doesn’t want to be burnt because he wants to reach across the carpet safely to receive the gift ‘a puppy’ on his birthday.
c. Which images and metaphors are used in the story?
Answer: The main metaphor in the story “The Wish” by Roald Dahl is the child’s journey along the carpet as a representation of the obstacles and challenges he faces as he matures. Vivid images that Dahl uses to reinforce the metaphor include the scab as the boy’s primary challenge, the red spots on the carpet as hot lumps of coal, and the black sections as evil poisonous snakes.
e. The story shows the events through the eyes of the narrator and the child. Comparing the two styles, who presents a more interesting or effective view for the readers? Why?
Answer: In “The Wish,” a boy uses his imagination to travel across a red, black, and yellow carpet. The children represent the story in a more interesting and effective than the narrator’s because it is vivid and suspenseful. The child was in a hardship situation and he faces hardships and won all the challenges as motivated by a Birthday gift as a puppy by completing his journey at the end.
f. Is “The Wish” a story about self-confidence overcoming fear or about greed? Give your arguments.
Answer: Roald Dahl’s “The Wish” is about self-confidence overcoming fear rather than about greed aa it is all about self-confidence and overcoming fear. Admittedly, “greed,” the desire for a puppy, is a motivating factor. However, the puppy motivator is a fantasy that boy has made up to help him overcome his fear of crossing the treacherous carpet. He says to himself, ‘if I get across safely, without being burnt and without being bitten, I will be given a puppy for my birthday tomorrow.
The child seems fearful while watching his scab. He thinks much about picking it. He raises many questions with himself. He picks out his scab being panic. But when he sees the carpet his fear increases high. He gathers his confidence to cross the carpet. He creates his obstacles supposing the colours as coals and snakes. He even puts his goal across the carpet. He moves on bravely on the carpet wishing for a puppy on his birthday as a birthday gift. He tries his best to overcome his fear. His self-confidence and his wish end as he falls down in black colours.
Even the puppy becomes part of his project of overcoming fears to achieve a goal: But the fear of not getting the puppy compelled him to go on. This tale enters into the mind of an imaginative child and reflects the child’s ability to turn something as common place as a patterned carpet into a scene of adventure and challenge in which he can act out his fears in a safe environment.
Reference Beyond The Text
a. Do you think our wish can be fulfilled? Why or why not?
Answer: Having wishes is significant in itself. But not all the wants, desires and wishes are fulfilled. We need hard and complicated practise to fulfil our wish, want, desire, and interest. If a wish comes true, it is one of the most beautiful things on earth. It is, therefore, essential to deal constructively with the obstacles on the way to your wish. Some of the common hurdles that stop us from fulfilling our wishes are:
I have no money for it / I don’t want to spend my money on it
I want to, but I don’t have time for it /I’m too caught up in my everyday life
I’m scared. Fear of failure. Afraid of making the wrong decision. Afraid to disappoint other people
I have doubts whether it is right for me
So to fulfil our wishes we should deal with above mentioned problems. For this we can do the following things:
Try to realize the wish in the small version. Try to satisfy the need behind the wish.
Trick everyday life and proceed in small steps.
Address fears and debunk them as much as possible.
Create clarity. Get a clear picture of where we want to go.
Strengthen self-image so that our wishes becomes possible.
b. Why do you think some people might have a frightening nature? What would you suggest to them to overcome it?
Answer: Some people might have a frightening nature due to a lack of self-confidence and being less sociable. Some people, especially innocent ones easily lose their confidence as they face obstacles in their paths of life.
I would suggest the following points to overcome it:
Learn more about your fear, this first step can be the hardest one but it’s also absolutely necessary.
Use your imagination in positive ways.
Use your brain in a different way than usual.
Focus on your breathing.
Practice mindfulness.
Use nature as your therapist.
Ramji Acharya
MPhil in ELE, Kathmandu University, Writer & Researcher in Education, SEO Practitioner & ICT enthusiast.
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