Hi to all my E-Pals,

I just finished reading the story. I loved reading the book. This is just the first time I am reading a Roald Dahl story and I feel that he rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It shows that how courageous Mary was to take such a drastic step even in that condition. It is also very intriguing how she feeds the murder weapon of her husband to the policemen. Overall, I really enjoyed reading that book and have made up my mind to read as much as Roald Dahl as possible!!!!!!!!!!!

SHIBIKA SURESH -India
VII A

By Mani Makkar (India)

Hi! I am Aparajita Pandey of class VIII from India.

I read the story ‘LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER’ and found it quite good.
This story depicts aspects of human perturbation, cruelty and violence. I think Mary (Patrick’s wife) was very to have duped such veteran investigators. She did have a lot of will power to have killed the person she loved dearly. It must have been some really serious thing that Patrick told his wife. May be, he wanted to break their marital vows which led her to take such serious step.
Some might think she was a schizophrenic but I think that she really was an ingenious lady.

Lamb to the Slaughter : different interpretations of the title by Jordane and Diana (France)

The title can be read in different ways.

First, the author points to the crime weapon before the reader even had the opportunity to start reading the short story.

The title is definitely a pun as the word “lamb” can refer to various things.

It can indicate that Patrick was a victim and was easy to kill. In this case there is a metaphor, because Patrick can be the lamb of the title.

It can also refer to Mary who dotes on her husband and who would have been ready to do anything for him. She was a follower who took so much care of him that he decided to walk out on her, which led to Mary’s act.

In the title, slaughter is a synonym for murder and  there is another play on words because the lamb is the weapon too.

Irony and dark humour in Lamb to the Slaughter by Lamia and Landry (France)

Dark humour and dramatic irony prevail in this short story.

To begin with, the moment when the grocer  asks Mary “then, how about meat, Mrs Maloney?” and when she answers “No, I’ve got meat, thanks. I got a nice leg of lamb from the freezer” is quite funny as she said “a nice leg of lamb” just after killing her husband with it.

There is also the moment when she gets back home and she calls “Patrick! How are you, darling?”. It’s funny and macabre at the same time because she calls him whereas she knows he is dead.

Another interesting moment as far as dark humour and especially dramatic irony are concerned is when one of the policemen says “get the weapon, and you’ve got the man” and “probably right under our very noses”. The situation is all the more ironic as Mrs Maloney would have been the only possible suspect if they had understood Patrick had been killed with the leg of lamb.

The most significant moment as regards dark humour is probably when one of the policemen belches after enjoying the leg of lamb which was used to kill his colleague!

Lamb to the Slaughter as a detective story by Sandie and Mélanie (France)

In this short story, we have all the elements of a traditional short story. As a matter of fact, as in every detective story, it begins with a murder and then we have a suspect who needs an alibi. After that the sleuth carries out an investigation in order to find the weapon or clues.

However, Lamb to the Slaughter is also in many ways a parody of this genre. In fact, the weapon is never found, the murderer never unmasked and the policemen look rather ridiculous.

In addition everything in this story deals with how to get rid of the weapon and not with finding the murderer.

Finally, though the story looks very much like a detective story, we can say it much closer to a parody of the genre.