The War of Ages : A Deconstruction of the Adult-Child Dichotomy in Roald Dahl's Matilda

Sammanfattning:

This literary essay is centered around Roald Dahl's Matilda and employs deconstructive theory in order to dismantle the binary relationship between adults and children that the novel's author attempts to uphold. The portrayal of adult characters as either evil or passive, and child characters as innocent and helpless, establishes children and grownups as juxtaposed and limits the choice of hero to a child. However, an analysis of the child hero reveals an identity that more resembles an adult. The essay contends that novel's protagonist, a child in body but not in mind, does not support the adult-child dichotomy that Dahl has established in Matilda.