23 pages • 46 minutes read
Roald Dahl, Illustr. Quentin BlakeThe Magic Finger
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Magic Finger
The titular Magic Finger is the catalyst for the story’s events. Despite its important role, it is a mystery. Neither the reader nor the narrator know much about it. The narrator introduces it thus: “The Magic Finger is something I have been able to do all my life. I can’t tell you just how I do it, because I don’t even know myself” (14). How it works and why it transforms people into animals is unclear. What we do know is that it metes out justice to the story’s characters.
The narrator has been trying not to use her powers: “For months I had been telling myself that I would never put the Magic Finger upon anyone again—not after what happened to my teacher, old Mrs. Winter” (10). The Magic Finger can transform people into animals. When the narrator is consumed with rage, the Magic Finger “jumps out and touches the person who has made me cross” (14). The Magic Finger appears to have a mind of its own. It punishes those who have upset the narrator.
The Magic Finger is depicted as something separate from the narrator. Though it is technically part of her, it is also autonomous. The narrator does not seem to have much, if any, control over her magic powers. She does not decide what happens after she curses someone. The narrator is distraught after she uses the Magic Finger on the Greggs. She laments: “Oh, that Magic Finger! What has it done to my friends?” (41). This encapsulates how the Magic Finger is almost an indiscriminate force, punishing those who anger the narrator without her input. It represents fate, justice, and even karma.
Red
In The Magic Finger, red symbolizes rage. When the narrator is angry, she says: “I saw red. And before I was able to stop myself, I did something I never meant to do” (10). Red represents the narrator’s fury. When she sees red, she acts recklessly; she is no longer able to calm herself and remain in control.
The tangible connection between red and rage repeats throughout the text. The narrator says: “But it always happens when I get cross, when I see red …Then I get very, very hot all over…Then the top of the forefinger of my right hand begins to tingle most terribly” (14). Red is a symptom of the narrator’s anger, a warning of what’s to come. Red can also symbolize danger and violence. It signals to the narrator that she has lost control of her temper and that the Magic Finger will awaken. Red also symbolizes the Greggs’ violence. They are initially blind to it, overcome by their love for hunting.
Guns
In The Magic Finger, guns are a symbol of violence and cruelty. They also represent the violation of the natural world. At the beginning of the novel, the Greggs are obsessed with hunting and blind to its cruelty. After killing sixteen ducks, Mr. Gregg “is “beside himself with joy” (16). He cultivates the same violence in his sons. Dahl’s lesson to the reader is clear: to kill a living being, for sport or otherwise, is wrong. Guns symbolize not only hunting but apathy toward other living creatures.
The Greggs are blind to the cruelty of their actions. Dahl contrasts the Greggs and narrator by revealing their perspective on the world. When the narrator sees the family walking out of the woods “carrying a lovely young deer,” she shouts at them (9). In this moment, she is enraged by the Gregg’s killing of the beautiful deer and sees them as perpetrators of violence.
Mr. Gregg is most furious when he sees the ducks handling his things: “And look at that one holding my lovely gun!” (36). Both Mr. Gregg and the narrator use the adjective “lovely” to describe drastically different things. While the narrator sees the beauty of nature, Mr. Gregg sees the beauty of his gun. Mr. Gregg only breaks free from the thrall of violence when he begins “smashing all three guns into tiny pieces with a huge hammer” (56). In doing so, the Greggs turn their backs on bloodshed.
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