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Analyzing Themes From 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

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Josie Hickam Mrs. Korando English One February 17, 2023 “Lamb to the Slaughter” Theme The short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl is truly surprising in multiple ways. Mary Maloney kills her husband by hitting him in the back of the head with a leg of lamb after he gives her shocking news. After killing her husband Mary begins cooking the leg of lamb in the oven and then goes to the grocery store to create an alibi. Later into the investigation Mary offers the investigators that same leg of lamb that she had used to kill her husband and cooked after so that they are unable to find the weapon to use as evidence. Because of this, Mary gets away with her husband's murder. The theme of this story is when one's state of mind is altered they may do unexplainable things. …show more content…

The text states, “...watching him with kind of a dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word (Dahl 2). This quote proves the theme because it shows that her state of mind is altered. Mary had felt kind of a dazed horror while her husband had been telling her shocking news, according to the story. Patrick had gotten further and further away from Mary with each word, according to the story. This makes it seem as if Mary had been dissociating and slowly going into shock when Patrick was telling her the shocking news. This proves that Mary's state of mind was altered. Other quotes from the story furthermore prove the theme of the

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