The Betting Problem

 

In the short story by Roald Dahl Man from the South is about a man wearing a white suit with a kind a like Panamanian hat. On the other side there is an american boy and a girl. All of these characters are in a Jamaican hotel. This boy has a special lighter that he says it always works. They were all sitting down and the man from the south says he would like to bet the boys lighter wont light 10 times ina row in his room. The boy will win a Cadillac and if he lost he will loose his little finger of his left hand. So the man from the south and the boy went to his room but they first asked a lady if she could bring a chopping knife and some nails. The narrator is the referee so he could count how many time the lighter lighted. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight the narrator said until the old mans wife came and said Carlos! She didn't want Carlos to keep betting so she took the chopping knife. It turned out that the Cadillac wasn't his it was her wife's. Also the narrator saw that the wife only had two fingers in her left hand.

 

"It was a fine garden with lawns and beds of azaleas and tall coconut palms, and the wind was blowing strongly through the tops of the palm trees making the leaves hiss and crackle as though they were on fire. I could see the clusters of big brown nuts handing down underneath the leaves."

 

This is a very good example of imagery because of how Roald Dahl uses his vocabulary and the precise words. In this quote you can see the appliance of the sense of sight, hear that creates an image in our heads and how the setting looks like. I like how Roald Dahl uses imagery and the senses to have a better understanding.

 

 

Just then I noticed a small, oldish man walking briskly around the edge of the pool. He was immaculately dressed in a white suit and he walked very quickly with little bouncing strides, pushing himself high up onto his toes with each step. He had on a large creamy Panama hat, and he came bouncing along the side of the pool, looking at the people and the chairs.

He stopped beside me and smiled, showing two rows of very small, uneven teeth, slightly tarnished. I smiled back.

"Excuse pleess, but may I sit here?"

 

 

Roald Dahl uses a very good characterization describing every detail of the character. In this quote you can imagine an old man walking by a pool. later on when he talks you can see how Roald Dahl spells wrong the words so when the reader reads he can infer where this character is from.

 

This story Man from the South is my favorite because of the way the author uses building suspense throughout he story. Also this was the easiest story to imagine in my head thanks to Roald Dahl use of imagery and to understand the characters personality his characterization.