Man from the south door Roald Dahl

Story Time (I): Man From The South
Listening to a small story by Roald Dahl

Reading card:
Author: Roald Dahl
Title: Man from the south
The gist of the story: Don’t gamble with things that are not yours.

Who?

The narrator:
He tells the whole story. We don’t know a lot about him, because he doesn’t introduce himself, but you can read he’s on a holiday in Jamaica. He’s not an American, but he speaks English very well, so he probably comes from an English-speaking country. One other thing we know from him is that he smokes.

Carlos:
The “man from the South”. He’s a small, old man, who walks very quickly, and is dressed in a white suit. On his head he wears a large, creamy Panama hat, and white shoes. He’s probably around sixty-eight or seventy. And has an Italian or Spanish accent, and probably some sort of South-American. He smokes cigars, and he likes to bet. In the end of the story we get tot know that he hasn’t anything left to bet with, his girlfriend has won it all from him a long while ago.

The American sailor
He’s about nineteen or twenty years old, and an American sailor. He has an English girlfriend, and smokes too. We don’t get to know much more about him, but he also likes to bet.

When?

Definite place because they mentioned The hotel and it is in Jamaica and also mentioned is that it is 6 in the evening . The story is very explicit because they mentioned a lot of details. The story also takes place in the hotel bedroom where the story began with the betting and in the kitchen, where the narrator must get a butchers knife.

What?

It’s A Social and adventure story. The story is about a very strange bet, made by Carlos. He bets with an American sailor; if the boy struck his lighter ten times successfully, he would win a Cadillac. If the boy fails to struck the lighter ten times successfully, the little finger on his left hand gets chopped off. The narrator is called in as referee. When the boy has struck the lighter eight times, a woman comes in, and tells Carlos’ story. She tells them he owns nothing, and that she won all his belongings a long time ago. It took her a lot of work, and a lot of time, but in the end she won it all. It only cost her all of her fingers, except a thumb and one finger.

Explanation of the title?

The title is “Man from the South”, and it’s about Carlos, because he comes from the south. And I like that title because it’s so mystic!

Authors view on life

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My Marks

Well this book gets from me a 10 out of 10: it’s a funny and very attractive subject, you never know who’s going to win and Carlos is so Mystic.

Personal opinion

Well I love the book! It is convincing and it’s very interesting and funny. And I see myself in one of the characters: I think I’m just like Carlos; I also bet for stupid things and unrealistic stuff. And the title is so well chosen because if it would have been “ the crazy bet”, it would not be so exiting to read because you would know about what was about! And the Chosen title is so mystic. Everything in the book is well described, the language was very good, the characters where okay and further it’s a professional book and everything was coherent. The atmosphere in the book was very mysterious! I never heard a story like this, it was very pleasant to read it. I never read books of this author; I can ensure you that this will not be the last book I will read of Roald Dahl! And I will recommend this book to everyone.