Writer's Craft: Vivid Descriptions Used in "Matilda"

Roald Dahl used imagery to describe characters in the book, "Matilda". These vivid descriptions help to bring the characters alive and readers can imagine how the characters look like or how they behave. 

1) Description of Miss Trunchball 

"She had once been a famous athlete, and even now the muscles were still clearly in evidence. You could see them in the bull-neck, in the big shoulders, in the thick arms, in the sinewy wrists and in the powerful legs." (Pg 66)

2) Description of a newt that Lavender finds in her backyard pond

"[The newt] is about six inches long and very slimy, with a greenish-grey skin on top and an orange-coloured belly underneath." (Pg 11)

3) Description of Matilda from Miss Honey's perspective

"She saw the child white in the face, as white as paper, trembling all over, the eyes glazed, staring straight ahead and seeing nothing. The whole face was transfigured, the eyes round and bright and she was sitting there speechless, quite beautiful in a blaze of silence." (Pg 144)

Writer's Craft: Creative Similes in "Matilda"

 There are many creative similes used in the book "Matilda" written by Roald Dahl. Here are some examples:

1) "The parents looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab. A scab is something you have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away." (Pg 6)

2) "Her body was so slim and fragile one got the feeling that if she fell over she would smash into a thousand pieces, like a porcelain figure." (Pg 50) 

3)"Miss Trunchbull never walked, she always marched like a storm-trooper with long strides and arms swinging." (Pg 51) 

4) "... if a group of children happened to be in her path, she ploughed through them like a tank" (Pg 51)

5) "If you get on the wrong side of Miss Trunchbull, she can liquidize you like a carrot in a kitchen blender." (Pg 69) 

6) "When at last the germ of a brilliant idea hit her, she began to expand on it and lay her plans with the same kind of care the Duke of Wellington had done before the Battle of Waterloo." (Pg 110) 

7) "The boy was now so full of cake he was like a sackful of wet cement and you couldn't have hurt him with a sledge-hammer." (Pg 133)

 

Vocabulary Building: Binomials

(1) What are binomials?

 Binomials are fixed expressions where two words are joined by a conjunction, e.g. up and down. 

(2) Examples of binomials

- give and take

- rave and rant

- in black and white

- leaps and bounds

- save and scrimp

- part and parcel