My topic worked really well for this paper, I felt the various chapters of my story came together almost as soon as I began my research.

I’ve always felt a bit self conscious about my writing, and I’ve had some trouble with the flow of my writing, rather than fighting it I decided to write my paper in chapters. Additionally, I’d like to add a third option to the question: one can either choose to extend/embrace their identity, shed his/her identity, or just hide it from those that wouldn’t understand.

I love this project–or rather, I love the research I’m doing for the project. The blogs, on the other hand, or more of an annoyance and I don’t feel that they’ve added anything.

I went into the project thinking I would be able to find a lot of material based on what I remembered of Dahl’s books from reading them as a child. When I first thought of the topic I assumed I would be writing about racisim in the Oopma Loompas and his treatment of women in The Witches, I soon realized these topics really had very little basis in his writing and moved on to much richer topics.

I hope that I make it to twenty pages, I got over fifteen easily, it’s the last few I’m having the most difficulty with.

Ronit’s idea to combine her LEADs research using a basis from research she was already doing was a good one, I still have some small regrets that I didn’t do the same.

Looking foward, I might look at some other children’s literature as well to explore similar themes.

Unto the fun stuff: I was in London in February for my cousins Bar Mitzvah, it was a quick trip but while I was there I did have the opportunity to go and visit the Roald Dahl Museum and meet briefly with the archivist. I found some great sources.

Originally, I thought there would be a lot online already about my topic, I quickly realized this was not the case. I did, however, find Dahl’s archives on the Official Roald Dahl website–they’ve been interesting to explore. Overall it hasn’t significantly helped or hindered my process.

There are advantages and disadvantages of taking time off from an on-going project. One can lose fresh ideas or come back from a break and see everything from a whole new perspective. Personally, I prefer to keep up a slow momentum, this January break I opted to write all of these blog posts, watch the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Dahl wrote the screen play) with my family, and do some more reading.

At this stage in my research I’m very happy with the topic I have chosen, I think the Plath idea was my getting a little over enthusiastic… It’s a bit late for second guessing now, so at this point all I can do is keep up my work and hope it all works out!

Again, not much to add; I have yet to cut or add anything. My research is going as planned;  I am a bit worried about how well it’s going to come together in a paper but I’ll get to that when I start writing.

Thus far there haven’t been many obstacles, challenges, or suprises: I’ve read 13 of Dahl’s children’s books and I’ve just started reading his authorized biography. I’m finding a lot of social satire and commentry, so my gut is to say thus far everything is going well.

So far I’m pretty happy with the direction I’m going with my research. I’ve re-read The Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The BFG, and James and the Giant Peach. Some of the themes of Dahl’s social commentary are evident throughout all of his literature, while others are restricted to a single work. Obesity, reverence towards the elderly, and child cruelty, are examples running themes I’ve found in multiple works. While themes such as spoilt children and poverty are slightly more concentrated to singular works.

As for resources to follow, I still have a quite a few of Dahl’s children’s books to go through and I’ve started to read Boy, one of his autobiographies. For the interview requirement, my grandmother was a children’s librarian in England for twenty years so I’m hoping to ask her some questions. As for the audio/visual requirement, Dahl wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang so maybe I’ll look into some social commentary in that as well.

Bubbie, my dad’s mother, worked as a school librarian in London for almost 20 years before her retirement.  Though Bubbie always presents her grandkids with packages when she comes to visit, the wrappings inevitably contain books.  I give Bubbie a lot of credit for my appreciation of literature and for the eclectic nature of my collection.

My shelves are filled with classic British elementary school novels from my early reading years. These books taught me the nuances of British English language and served as a window into the culture of my father’s childhood.  As such, I read through most of the works of Roald Dahl in 3rd and 4th grade (Mathilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The Witches, and Danny, Champion of the World).

I re-read two of Roald Dahl’s works over Shabbat: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. I noticed some running satirical themes and commentary against obesity, gluttony, poverty, and child cruelty. I love where this topic is headed, but I’m not quite convinced yet it will be a success.

Over Shabbat I also started going through some of Sylvia Plath’s poetry and letters home. I found a clear correlation between her life and that of Esther Greenwood, the protagonist in her book The Bell Jar. I’m leaning towards my second idea (Experiencing Bipolar Disorder: The Bell Jar, Selected Poems, and Letters of Sylvia Plath), but I want to mull it over for a bit.

So I have two ideas for my LEADs paper so far, neither of which has anything to do with the other, but both of which interest me nonetheless:

Social Satire and Commentary as Seen Through Roald Dahl’s Children’s Novels

Experiencing Bipolar Disorder: The Bell Jar, Selected Poems, and Letters of Sylvia Plath

I’ve always loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but the racism with regards to the umpa lumpas has always bothered me. The Witches gave me nightmares for three months but I’ve always wondered why Dahl has a tendency to paint adults as the villains in his stories and hail the children as the heroes.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m really interested in researching something mental health related. I read The Bell Jar last week and loved it, I also really enjoy Plath’s poetry.

I don’t see any reason either of these topics wouldn’t work, I just have to get moving on deciding which one to research!