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Roald’s Mother
Roald’s father, Harald Dahl, has two children with his first wife and four children (including Roald) with Sofie, his second wife. Born in Norway, Harald and his brother Oscar run away from their father to make their fortunes. Harald later moves to Cardiff, Wales to start a shipbroking business. It quickly becomes successful, and Harald uses some of his money to surround himself with beautiful things. A great lover of beauty, Roald’s father seeks to cultivate the same appreciation in his children by taking his wife on long walks through the beautiful parts of Wales. In Roald, at least, his efforts seem to be successful. As a child, Roald’s father falls off the roof of his family home and breaks his arm. He becomes permanently disabled when the doctor arrives to treat him and drunkenly mistakes the fracture for a dislocation. Despite his father’s nonfunctioning arm, Roald remembers him as a capable man who navigated life effectively. Roald’s father dearly loves Astri, Roald’s oldest sister. When she dies of appendicitis when Roald is three, Roald’s father is so overcome with grief that he dies soon after.
Roald’s Father Quotes in Boy
The Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Roald’s Father or refer to Roald’s Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
1. Papa and Mama
Quotes
But what interests me most of all about these two brothers, Harald and Oscar, is this. Although they came from a simple unsophisticated small-town family, both of them, quite independently of one another, developed a powerful interest in beautiful things.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
2. Kindergarten, 1922-23
Quotes
[Mama’s] husband had always stated most emphatically that he wished all his children to be educated in English schools. They were the best in the world, he used to say. Better by far than the Norwegian ones. Better even than the Welsh ones, despite the fact that he lived in Wales and had his business there. He maintained that there was some kind of magic about English schooling and that the education it provided had caused the inhabitants of a small island to become a great nation and a great Empire and to produce the world’s greatest literature.
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Roald’s Father Quotes in Boy
The Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Roald’s Father or refer to Roald’s Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
1. Papa and Mama
Quotes
But what interests me most of all about these two brothers, Harald and Oscar, is this. Although they came from a simple unsophisticated small-town family, both of them, quite independently of one another, developed a powerful interest in beautiful things.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
2. Kindergarten, 1922-23
Quotes
[Mama’s] husband had always stated most emphatically that he wished all his children to be educated in English schools. They were the best in the world, he used to say. Better by far than the Norwegian ones. Better even than the Welsh ones, despite the fact that he lived in Wales and had his business there. He maintained that there was some kind of magic about English schooling and that the education it provided had caused the inhabitants of a small island to become a great nation and a great Empire and to produce the world’s greatest literature.
