Man_from_the_South_Summary

Chio Zhi Jie Alvin Class 1-1 Man From The South by Roald Dahl (1916-1990) Word Count: 4625 words Summary: (488 words) The story begins with the narrator, Roald Dahl, relaxing by a pool at a Jamaican hotel. While relaxing and observing his surroundings, he meets a strange little South American man in a white suit and cream Panama hat. The two then sat down and started to chat. Soon after, an American boy and an English girl joined them in their conversation. Out of kindness, the boy offers them all a cigarette. Using his lighter to light the cigarettes, he boasts that his lighter always lights, even in the strong wind at the hotel. As the boy continues to brag about his lighter, the old man asks if the boy is willing to bet on it. The boy is surprised but still readily agrees to bet a dollar. The old man started to laugh and offers to up the stakes. He decided that he would offer his brand new Cadillac if the boy can light his lighter ten times in a row. However, if the boy loses, the man will chop off the little finger on his left hand. After much consideration, the boy agrees to the bet. The narrator follows all of them up to the old man’s room to carry out the bet. When they reached the old man’s room, the old man immediately tied the boy's hand is to the desk. He asked the boy to close up all his fingers except his pinky. The old man then calls his maid, asking her to prepare a chopper to chop meat bone. The maid was suspicious, but obeys the old man’s instructions. While the old man held up the chopping knife, the boy started to start his first light. The atmosphere in the room was tense. However, it was not long before the boy makes it up to eight successful lights. All of a sudden the door opens and a woman rushes in yelling in Spanish. She shoves the old man down onto the bed and apologises to everyone. She explains that she should not have left him alone as he has a strange craving for human fingers. From his home, the old man had taken forty-seven fingers. She eventually managed to win everything from him, but it took her a long time. When the woman left the room with the old man, the narrator noticed that the woman's hand had only one finger and one thumb left on it. I find that this story was mainly for entertainment purposes, but I could say that a possible morale of the story could be not to bet without a reason (actually there is no reason to bet) as the consequences of losing might be too great. I enjoyed this story because there was a lot of suspense in the way Roald Dahl wrote it. There was never a point where one could easily predict what would happen next which makes the reader want to carry on reading the story.