L6 Lecture Series #2: Tales of Innocence & Experience

In the second lecture of the series, English Teacher, Mr Jackson led a lecture titled 'Tales on Innocence and Experience', in recognition of Roald Dahl Story Day.

Lower 6 student Isabella provided us with her perspective on the lecture; "We had a great lecture from Mr Jackson about Roald Dahl in commemoration of Roald Dahl day which is on the 13^th of September. Mr Jackson told us about how Dahl can be viewed as not just “a master of character and gripping narrative” but also how we can learn about the “the writer’s philosophy on the human condition, matters of morality and the nature-nurture dynamic by which we all grow and learn”.  He also talked about the clear generational divide in Roald Dahl’s books between the experienced older generation and the innocent children. In particular, the difference in intelligence between the lazy parents and the intelligent child in the well- known book, Matilda.

The most intriguing part of the lecture was when Mr Jackson compared couplets from William Blake’s poem to show how Dahl’s novels show the themes of innocence and experience. Perhaps the quote that stood out most from Blake’s poems was, “A Robin Red breast in a cage, Puts all Heaven in a Rage". This creates imagery of an innocent bird unfairly trapped against its will. Mr Jackson likened this to Dahl’s novel, James and the Giant Peach, where James is trapped in his garden by villainous Aunts. When the miracle of a giant peach comes into his life, the Aunts tried to use the miracle of a peach to make money, their lack of ability to see the magic in this peach ultimately causes their downfall.  Mr Jackson also mentioned how many of the villains in Roald Dahl’s books tend to be a member of authority, such as Mrs Trunchbull, Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge, Mr Wormwood and Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Many of which met their inevitable demise.

Mr Jackson ended the lecture with the advice to sometimes go back and read Roald Dahl’s books, in order to keep the creativity that we sometimes loose when we grow up."