User:NateAteTeen

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“The Swan” by Roald Dahl

Intro/short Summary This story, “The Swan,” is one of the short stories in The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar and Six More. It starts out with Ernie getting a .22-caliber rifle for his birthday. Ernie and his friend, Raymond, found Peter Watson with a pair of binoculars and said he was spying on them. They tied him to the railroad tracks and watched a train run over him, and then shot a swan and tied the dead swan’s wings to Peter’s arm. They made him climb a tree and jump off and fly like a swan. Ernie shot him in the thigh, then Peter saw a light so brilliant he couldn’t look away from it. He dove toward it and flew to his lawn.

Background

I think the author, Roald Dahl, wrote this short story, “The Swan,” because Roald Dahl had bad experiences at school. He might have been bullied around and the bad experiences got stuck in his head. Roald Dahl was in the Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot. At age twenty-six he began to write. Writing was his third career. His first short story recounted his adventures in the war. The name of that short story was called “The Saturday Evening Post.”

Characters

All the characters in the story have different characteristics. Ernie is big, mean, and likes violence. He was happy when he got his 22-caliber rifle for his birthday. Raymond is tall, also mean, slim, and muscular. Peter Watson is small, frail body, freckled face, wore spectacles with thick lenses. He was an excellent student, quiet, and polite. He loved music and played the piano well. His clothes were always clean.

Plot Summary

Once Ernie got .22-caliber rifle for his birthday, he wanted to see what he could kill. Then Ernie and Raymond found Peter. Ernie’s goal now was to frighten Peter. Peter’s goal was to try to stay out of this mess. The conflict is that Ernie and Raymond won’t let Peter go and they are trying to frighten him. They are jealous because they can’t do everything Peter can. The rising action is when he was tied to the railroad tracks and doesn’t know if he is going to fit underneath the train. The climax is when he doesn’t know if he is going to give up or not and in the end he is up in a tree with dead swan wings tied to his arm. Ernie and Raymond were making Peter jump from the tree and fly like a swan, but he didn’t budge, so Ernie shoot a bullet and hit his thigh. Then Peter saw a light so brilliant he couldn’t look away from it. He dove toward it and flew to his lawn. Three different people reported seeing a great white swan (which was Peter) circling over the village that morning. They were a schoolteacher, a man who was replacing some tiles on the roof of a chemist’s shop, and a boy, John Underwood, who was flying his model airplane in a nearby field. Peter’s mother took him inside the house and called the doctor.

''Nathaniel Young 3/14/10 C period''