Grandmamma threatens the manager, and he gives in. Grandmamma gives the boy two mice, William and Mary, but the hotel manager doesn’t want mice in his establishment. The boy and his grandma want to go to Norway for the summer, but Grandmamma catches pneumonia, so they stay at a fancy English hotel, Hotel Magnificent, instead. While working on his treehouse, the boy encounters a witch but climbs away from her to avoid harm. Obeying the wishes of the boy’s departed parents, the boy and Grandmamma return to England. Yearly, the witches gather at a hotel and listen to her speak. She’s the tyrannical, all-powerful leader. To them, the cleaner the kid, the worse it smells: Clean kids smell like “dog poop.” The Grand High Witch is the most wicked witch of them all. Grandmamma details how to spot a witch: They wear gloves (to hide their claws), wigs (they don’t have hair), and they have blue spit and fire in their eyes. Many of the kids don’t go away: They become something else, like a stone or a porpoise. The boy tells his grandma that most of these kids didn’t vanish. She provides five examples of kids that disappeared because of witches. To distract him from the tragedy, Grandmamma teaches him about witches. One icy Christmas, while visiting Grandmamma in Norway, his parents get in a fatal car accident. He is super close with his queenly, cigar-smoking grandma, Grandmamma, who still lives in Norway. The narrator is from Norway but grew up in England due to his dad’s business. He states that only women can be witches in the realm of evil spirits, men are inferior to women. A witch’s knack for blending in makes her extremely dangerous. They could be anybody, including an adored teacher. Witches don’t have broomsticks or black hats.

In Chapter 1, he tells the reader the difference between witches from fairytales and witches from real life. The study guide refers to an eBook version of the 2007 Puffin Books edition of The Witches.Īn unnamed boy narrates Dahl’s story, and he speaks to the reader directly. Spielberg says the latter center on “embracing the differences between races and cultures and sizes and language” ( “ A Word With: Steven Spielberg.” The New York Times, ). Spielberg claims there’s a “paradox” between Dahl’s incendiary views and his children’s stories. Jewish filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who directed the movie adaptation of The BFG, spoke about criticisms that Dahl was bigoted in an interview with Manohla Dargis. In February 2023, Dahl’s books were edited to reflect changing anti-bias standards, as some of his work was dated and potentially problematic.

The witches 1983