Author’s Choices in Theme Development in Going Solo Essay Sample

A careless and blithe outlook on life can often blind us from the meaning of emotional growth. In Roald Dahl’s autobiography, Going Solo, Dahl recollects his journey through adulthood: His experiences traveling internationally, doing work for the Shell company, and serving in the British Air Force during World War II. Roald has a positive outlook on life, cracking jokes whenever possible and seeing light in the dark. However, through this immature disposition, he is sometimes ignorant of hardship and behaves carelessly. Throughout the book, Dahl’s growing maturity is explored and illustrated. Dahl develops this theme of true emotional maturity coming with experiences in adulthood through characterization, point of view, and imagery.

Roald’s first-person point of view in his autobiography subtly foreshadows the changes he goes through and what remains a part of him when emotionally maturing. Dahl begins his recollection with a striking sentence: “I was twenty-two when I left. I would be twenty-five before I saw my family again.”(11). Dahl uses his knowledge of the future to foreshadow the intense events he would experience, how he would mature, and how his journey would end. At the end of his journey, Roald relives coming home from war. He remembers that he “flew down the steps of the bus straight into the arms of the waiting mother.”(208). Roald ties back to the beginning, the longing he felt leaving his home behind as a timid person. Later on, he is able to connect this feeling to who he is, a mature adult, at the end of his book. Dahl constitutes his idea that maturity doesn't have to mean losing yourself.

Maturity and finding yourself are illustrated through Dahl’s personal characterization. Towards the beginning of the book, Dahl writes about himself in a childish, immature way. While on a boat traveling, he interacts with many people in a witty nature to benefit his own humor, sometimes at the expense of others. Roald identifies the Major as a man of tradition and uniformity. Here he converses with the Major during breakfast: “‘Ah yes, of course, polo. At school, we used to play it on bicycles with hockey sticks.’ The Major’s stare switched suddenly to a fierce glare and he stopped chewing. He glared at me with such contempt and horror, and his face went so crimson, I thought he might be going to have a seizure.”(17) By deliberately warranting this extreme reaction for his satisfaction, Dahl demonstrates the crudeness of immaturity. The fearlessness that comes with this immaturity seems to motivate him to do as he pleases without real consequences, at least not ones he recognizes. Although he has a positive disposition on life, it comes with a price: Ignorance and high ego. In contrast, as we advance to later on in his life, Dahl begins to change his outlook on life and see the bigger picture. When World War II starts, he has to assume the role of a sergeant and capture the German civilians as prisoners of war. When the day is over, he sits down and recollects the events: “I was tired and dirty and I was feeling very unhappy about the killing of the bald-headed German. The captain at the barracks had congratulated me and said it was exactly the right thing to do, but that didn’t help.”(74)  He starts to develop a sense of regret and an obligation to analyze the unique and sometimes difficult situations he faces. Roald loses his pridefulness and becomes more considerate of others by opening his eyes to how his behavior affects others. Roald grows from a prideful, fearless person to a thoughtful and considerate one. His maturity is growing, and he now has a balance of blitheness and concern. Dahl reveals his own characterization as his emotional maturity evolves.

Dahl’s use of imagery allows him to convey a message of growth while keeping his fun personality. Early on in his travels, he befriends a family in Dar es Salaam and they have dinner. That evening, a lion struts into the yard and snatches up his friend's wife: “The lion ignored everybody, not altering his pace at all, but continuing to lope along with slow spring strides and with his head held high and carrying the woman proudly in his jaws, rather like a dog who is trotting with a good bone.”(45). Dahl doesn’t yet know how to comprehend the situation, so he copes in the only way he knows how: humor. This imagery shows that Dahl, in his immaturity, doesn’t know how to handle such a grave situation, so he uses humor to cope for his benefit. Many months after this experience with the lion, Roald has had some dismaying experiences that have helped him grow. He is now a fighter pilot serving in WWII in Khalkis, Greece. He recalls the bright image still stuck in his head “[nearly] forty-five years afterward, [...]I still retain an absolutely clear picture of Khalkis [...] The whole landscape looked as though it had been painted onto the surface of the earth by Vincent Van Gogh.”(143). Although Dahl has used imagery in immature ways, he has now learned to use his skill to maturely recollect his experiences, while keeping his bright personality. He doesn’t get rid of his sense of creativity, he instead transforms it as he further grows. By creating vivid and lively images in his writing, Dahl can relieve people of a common fear that comes with growth: Becoming boring. By consistently using imagery he demonstrates that you can be emotionally mature and keep a childlike sense of wonder and sweet disposition. 

Through an emphasis on characterization, point of view, and imagery, Dahl is able to profoundly encapsulate life’s odyssey through maturity. His usage of these literary strategies allows for the reader to reflect on themselves and learn from Roald’s experiences. In virtue of his story, we can all recognize that becoming mature is a process in which the genuineness of childhood is not lost.