The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More

In “The Swan,” Dahl once again uses darker, violent elements to explore a moral theme—Kindness and Cruelty. Dahl trusts young readers to handle the complex side of human relationships and to confront hard truths about the viciousness of which humans are capable. In an interview with The New York Times, director Wes Anderson who adapted some of the stories from The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, explained that he felt Dahl was willing to talk to children about things that other adults were not (Buchanan, Kyle. “Wes Anderson Finally Found a Way into His New Roald Dahl Film.” The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2023). Like many other children’s book authors, Dahl recognized a disconnect between the lived experiences of children and the books that were being written for them. He believed that children were living with and experiencing many mature and difficult challenges that deserved to be explored in the literature they read.

The introduction of Ernie’s father provides an example of parent-child relationship characterized by the violence and abuse of a parent, which then becomes learned behavior by the child. The opening of the story speaks to the cyclical nature of cruelty and to Ernie’s own experiences with violence in the home. Ernie’s father verbally abuses his wife and son, and there are hints that other forms of abuse take place, suggesting that Ernie is violent because his father is violent. The complicated relationship he has with his father causes him to view cruelty as natural, appropriate behavior. Dahl suggests that, in Ernie’s mind, there are only two roles to play in a relationship: the abuser and the receiver of the abuse. He knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of violence, so he ensures that he is the abuser in his relationships outside the home. The gift of a gun symbolizes Ernie’s initiation into the same type of life and expression of masculine identity as his father. He inherits his father’s trauma and immediately turns the violence away from himself, finding a target for his own abuse in Peter.

Peter functions as a perfect foil to Ernie and Raymond. Unlike the two bullies, Peter is softspoken, gentle, and kind toward animals. As the larger boys stomp through the woods, eager to kill something with Ernie’s new rifle, Peter looks at birds with his binoculars. Peter wants only to appreciate the beauty of the birds, while Ernie and Raymond seek to exploit nature for their amusement. His passion for birds is emphasized at the bird sanctuary as Peter tries to persuade Ernie and Raymond not to kill the swan. The boys do not listen as Peter explains that the birds in the sanctuary are protected and, instead, view his persistence as a challenge to their power.

The character of Peter is similar to David, the protagonist of “The Boy who Talked With Animals,” the first story in the collection—the morality of each boy casts the cruelty of the other characters in the stories in sharp relief. While the crowd contemplates eating turtle soup, David can only see the life of another animal not so different from his own. Similarly, Peter sees animals as equal stewards of the world. Like the boy hugging the turtle’s neck on the beach, Peter commits his own act of resistance against the cruelty he faces by lying about the cygnets. In contrast, Ernie calls Peter his “retriever dog,” further emphasizing his belief that animals are inferior to people.

Dahl’s works often champion vulnerable, sensitive, and intelligent children. The title character of Matilda is a bookish young girl whose parents cannot understand why any person would choose to read rather than watch television. Her headmaster Miss Trunchbull is a violent bully who tortures children. Matilda finds a way to resist her parents and Miss Trunchbull, using her gifts and intelligence to protect others like her. In Charlie the Chocolate Factory, Charlie is an unlikely hero: small, poor, and gentle. Charlie is not like the other characters in the book. He is perceptive, compassionate, and—by the world’s definition—weak. The same is true of the protagonists of James and the Giant Peach and The BFG. In “The Swan,” Peter is one in a long line of Dahl characters who dare to push back against ignorance, greed, and malice.

Peter’s reward for this resistance comes in the form of The Transformative Power of Magic—another signature trope of Dahl’s work. Peter is literally transformed by magic—something only granted to characters in Dahl’s stories who are smart, humble and goodhearted. Ernie and Raymond force Peter to jump from the tree, but his kindness and compassion toward animals endows him with the ability to transform into the swan whose wings he wears and fly to safety. Dahl is careful that only good characters receive magical gifts, projecting the idea that kindness comes with its own reward.