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1. Papa and Mama
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Boy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Authority and Hypocrisy
Beauty and Imagination
Growing Up
English Nationalism
Summary
Analysis
When Roald is three, his oldest sister Astri dies of appendicitis. Overcome with grief, Harald succumbs to pneumonia soon after. Although it would be easier for Sofie to return to Norway to raise her children, she stays in Wales to fulfill Harald’s wish of educating his children in English schools. Planning to move to England later, Sofie moves to a smaller house in Llandaff and enrolls Roald in kindergarten. Looking back, Roald remembers very little from this period of his life except for the thrill of riding his tricycle to and from school with his sister.
Sofie’s willingness to honor Harald’s wish indicates her strength of character. Her choice not to move the family to Norway also cements her own status as a lifelong foreigner in Britain—but for her children, it means that they’ll be raised according to English traditions. At this point in time, Roald’s family doesn’t seem to have a concrete idea of what English schooling entails. They only pursue it because Roald’s father believed that education must be what made England into such a dominant empire.
Themes
