42 pages • 1 hour read
Roald DahlThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Middle Grade | Published in 1977A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Beta“Lucky Break: How I Became a Writer”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“Lucky Break: How I Became a Writer” Summary
In this essay, Dahl speaks directly to young readers who may have an interest in writing. He explains that nearly all writers begin in alternative careers out of the need to make money and that most writers struggle to publish their first books. He then outlines seven qualities that all writers need, including imagination, writing ability, and stamina.
Dahl describes his experience as a young boy in boarding school. His headmaster was a cruel man who punished Dahl with a cane. Dahl and the other boys lived in fear of the headmaster and their teachers. For two years, he lived a miserable life. At age 10, he was permitted to spend Saturday mornings with the other older boys and a woman named Mrs. O’Connor while the school’s employees visited a local pub. Mrs. O’Connor introduced the boys to the history of English Literature and showed them the beauty of language.
At 13, Dahl attended another prestigious boarding school where the abuse of the children continued. The older boys took their cues from their teachers and tortured the younger students as well. Dahl’s school reports consistently indicated that he was bad at writing: “A persistent muddler. Vocabulary negligible, sentences malconstructed. He reminds me of a camel” (187). At 18, he was certain that his academic career had been a failure. Instead of pursuing higher education, he joined the Shell Oil Company and traveled the world. When World War II began, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force. A crash in the Libyan desert sent Dahl to a hospital for six months. He returned to fight for a few months, but his head injuries made it too challenging for Dahl to continue flying.
In 1942, Dahl moved to the United States as an air attaché and met the writer C. S. Forester. From Forester, Dahl learned that every writer has a secret self that exists in the imagination. Forester wanted to write about Dahl’s experiences in the war, so Dahl wrote up his stories and sent them to Forester’s home. Forester was so impressed with Dahl’s writing that he sent the piece directly to the paper without edits, bearing Dahl’s name in the byline. After this success, Dahl wrote prolifically, soon trying his hand at children’s literature. This is how he became a writer.
Dahl suggests that the most challenging part of being a writer is finding a good plot. He has notebooks filled with plot ideas. He shows the reader a scribbled note that reads: “What about a chocolate factory that makes marvelous and fantastic things—with a crazy man running it?” (203). This little note inspired Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“Lucky Break: How I Became a Writer” Analysis
As one of two autobiographical, non-fiction pieces in the collection, this essay by Dahl lends context to the other fictional works published alongside it. The author details his experiences at boarding school and the brutality he faced there, underscoring the theme of “Kindness and Cruelty,” by reflecting on the abuse in his own past. This theme appears repeatedly in Dahl’s stories, both in this compilation and in his children’s books. The advice he offers young readers at the beginning of the essay highlights several goals for those interested in becoming a writer. Dahl promotes qualities like imagination, steadfastness, humor, and self-discipline. His advice contrasts sharply with the written feedback he received from his teachers while he was a pupil. He positions their criticism as needlessly cruel, focusing on Dahl’s failings of character rather than his skills as a writer: “This boy is an indolent and illiterate member of the class” (187). In contrast, Dahl provides encouraging, practical advice for young writers in an attempt to give them the empowerment and inspiration he wished to receive from his own teachers.
Dahl provides an important exception to the cruelty of many of his instructors with the introduction of Mrs. O’Connor, who becomes an important symbol in this short memoir. Mrs. O’Connor represents a shift for Dahl in his journey toward the love of literature and writing. Instead of wielding brutality like the other teachers at the school, Mrs. O’Connor was kind, cheery, and patient. She trusted that her students could handle the challenging texts she placed before them, and she pushed them to think deeply about the literature on her syllabus. Under her guidance, Dahl read Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. He describes how Mrs. O’Connor dove into each text, spending an entire Saturday engaging her pupils in a lively discussion of the history and meaning of each work.
When examining this nonfiction essay through a critical lens, Mrs. O’Connor represents the mentor-figure found in a “monomyth,” or “hero’s journey.” This narrative structure includes a teacher who provides the hero with the skills and wisdom needed to face the challenges ahead. Mrs. O’Connor fills this role for Dahl who, after leaving school, faced a difficult period in the military. Furthermore, the important lessons Mrs. O’Connor instilled in him as a boy translated to his work as an adult. When he later submitted “A Piece of Cake,” the final piece in this collection, to C. S. Forester, Mrs. O’Connor’s influence impacted his ability to write well-constructed prose.
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