The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
"The Magic Finger" by Roald Dahl is a children's story told from the perspective of an outspoken eight-year-old girl who possesses a unique gift—her magic finger. This short narrative follows her as she grapples with her strong disapproval of hunting, particularly when her neighbors, the Gregg family, engage in it. The girl’s magic finger activates when she becomes angry, unleashing a wave of bizarre changes that ultimately transforms the Greggs into small people with ducklike wings while the ducks they hunted become larger, human-like creatures. This role reversal serves as a catalyst for the Gregg family to gain a new understanding of wildlife and empathy toward the animals they once hunted.
Illustrated by William Pène du Bois, the book combines imaginative storytelling with whimsical art that captures its comedic undertones. The story, while lighthearted, conveys deeper themes of justice and the need to stand against oppression, mirroring Dahl's recurring motifs found in many of his works. Although it concludes with a resolution for the Greggs, the narrative challenges readers to reflect on issues of fairness and sensitivity to the natural world. Ideal for young readers, "The Magic Finger" encourages discussions around morality and the consequences of one's actions.
Subject Terms
The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
First published: 1966; illustrated
Subjects: Animals, social issues, and the supernatural
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy
Time of work: The 1960’s
Recommended Ages: 10-13
Locale: A small town
Principal Characters:
The narrator , an unnamed eight-year-old girl with magical powersThe Greggs , her neighbors, who like to hunt
Form and Content
Roald Dahl’s The Magic Finger is a rollicking account of a hunting trip that goes amuck. This grossly imaginative tale is told from the viewpoint of a highly opinionated eight-year-old girl, the story’s unnamed narrator. The book is short, containing only forty-one pages in its original edition. The text is interspersed with William Pène du Bois’ fanciful black-and-white sketches of the comedic events and whimsical characters described by the author. Some of these illustrations unobtrusively fit into a quarter of a page, or less, leaving the remainder of the page for text; other drawings completely dominate a two-page spread.
The setting for the story is quickly established. Two young boys, whose last name is Gregg, live next door to the eight-year-old narrator. The girl “just can’t stand” hunting, and the boys next door and their father hunt both animals and birds: “Even Philip, who was only eight years old, had a gun of his own.” Adding intrigue to these rather ordinary circumstances is the unusual “gift” that the girl possesses—a magic finger.
The girl does not understand this gift; she only knows that she has always possessed it. It is activated when she becomes angry. A jolt of something akin to electrical power is released from her finger and lands on the person who has angered her, causing all sorts of outrageous things to happen—things over which she has no control. Therefore, when the Greggs begin to hunt and kill deer and wild ducks, the magic finger takes over. It is not until the next day that the girl learns the amazing results of its actions.
The jolt from the girl’s magic finger lands on the hunters. At first, nothing out of the ordinary occurs. The hunting expedition is actually quite successful at the outset, and a sizable number of wild ducks are bagged. Then, things suddenly change when a small group of ducks fly into the hunting arena. No matter how persistently the Gregg boys and their father attempt to shoot, how accurately they aim, or how close to the hunters the birds fly, the Greggs cannot even wound their prey. They finally abandon the hunt and return home to retire for the evening, eerily pursued by this band of strangely persistent ducks.
The next morning, to their astonishment and horror, the members of the Gregg family awake to discover that they have been changed into pint-sized people with ducklike wings, while the ducks outside have been transformed into people-sized ducks with human arms. The large ducks quickly proceed to set up residence in the house. In the chaos that follows, the Greggs, locked out of their own home, learn at first hand lessons on survival in the wild. The role reversal presents the Greggs with a very different perspective on hunting and a new sensitivity to animals and birds, especially to wild ducks. Although their problems are resolved by the end of the book, the magic finger continues its relentless pursuit of other purveyors of injustice.
Critical Context
Roald Dahl was a strong supporter of the downtrodden and a courageous crusader against injustice. This common thread runs through a number of his most popular children’s books. In The Magic Finger, it is deer and wild ducks that are oppressed, and the hero and upholder of justice is an eight-year-old girl with a magic finger. The story ends happily for the antagonists, the Gregg family; this is not the case in all of Dahl’s books. In fact, this is not the case for a cruel teacher, the antagonist in a subplot of The Magic Finger. When the young girl is unfairly victimized by the teacher, the magic finger’s power turns the teacher into a catlike creature, a condition from which she never recovers.
In Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach (1961), the protagonist, James, is the victim of injustice thrust upon him by wicked and uncaring aunts who make his life miserable. A strange old man gives James magic crystals to add to water. He convinces James that if he drinks this potion, he will no longer be unhappy. The boy falls and spills the crystals at the base of a tree, resulting in the creation of an enormous peach that will provide many magical adventures for James. Things do not end happily, however, for his aunts: The peach rolls down a hill, crushing them—a type of justice seemingly upheld.
Dahl’s Matilda (1988) features a bright young girl with stupid and self-centered parents who is further victimized by the headmistress at her school. Again, justice is, questionably, served when Matilda gets rid of her parents and goes to live with a favorite teacher. The plot contains cruelty, vulgarity, and violence that will certainly be offensive to some parents and teachers.
Dahl’s basic premise for these books is noteworthy: There are many injustices in the world, and there is a need for strong voices raised against them. The Magic Finger may be his least-offensive book in addressing this issue. It is a classic work that warrants an open-minded reading.