School Corporal Punishment
School corporal punishment—the infliction of physical pain to punish schoolchildren—is an important theme in Boy: Tales of Childhood. Although Dahl states in the preface that the book is simply a collection of memories skimmed off the top of his consciousness, he returns repeatedly to instances of violence he either endured or witnessed as a schoolboy. While there are now laws banning school corporal punishment in Britain and many other Western countries, Dahl grew up in an era when hitting boys with canes was a common disciplinary tool in the British school system. While the pain Dahl details is harrowing, he illustrates how the threat of being caned is its own emotional and psychological torture. Dahl learns to distrust authority figures who perpetuate the sadistic practice of caning. Despite being a sports captain, Dahl refuses to become one of the Repton prefects—older students who cane younger boys for falling out of line. Ultimately, Dahl's experience of undergoing systemic abuse carried out by the people in charge of his education does not train him into obeying the greater class structure at work in English social life. At the end of his school career, he longs to get as far away from England as he can.
Religious Hypocrisy
Although Dahl attends schools where prayers are mandatory, religion is not a large part of his life. To Dahl, the subject becomes significant when he is commenting on the hypocrisy of the Headmaster at Repton, a clergyman who viciously canes and strikes terror into young boys only to preach the next morning in the chapel about religious ideals of compassion and forgiveness. The experience of witnessing authority figures like his Headmaster say one thing while doing another sows seeds of religious doubt in the young Dahl. Knowing the truth of God's "salesmen" on Earth, Dahl cannot help but question the entire organization they represent. Dahl's confusion over the hypocritical Headmaster is compounded when he learns the man has become the Archbishop of Canterbury. Along with half the world, Dahl watches on television as the man who used to cane his bottom until it bled lowers a crown onto Elizabeth II's head.
Trickery
From early in his life, Dahl—a man who has created some of the most imaginative works of literature in the twentieth century—conveys a playful spirit. At times, his playfulness turns vengeful, and he devises tricks. The theme of trickery first arises when Dahl recounts how he and his friends find a dead mouse in their secret candy stash. Rather than squeal in disgust, Dahl happily pockets the mouse and plans his revenge against the cruel and unpleasant candy shop owner, Mrs. Pratchett. While another boy distracts her with a purchase, Dahl slips the mouse into a jar of gobstoppers, and the boys leave relishing the fact she will encounter it and experience a fright. Despite the brutal caning Dahl and his friends receive as punishment, Dahl continues to get the better of people he dislikes. When his sister's suitor ruins their summer holiday to Norway by being boorish, Dahl pranks him by switching out his pipe tobacco with dry goat feces. The spirit of trickery seems to come from his mother and is shared by his siblings as well, because all of them watch what he is doing with a subdued glee.
Grief
Grief is another key theme in Boy: Tales of Childhood. The theme first comes up when Dahl recounts how his father's first wife, Marie, died following the birth of their second child. The mourning period is cut short when Dahl meets Sofie in Norway, and starts a new family with her. However, Dahl's sister Astri dies of appendicitis when she is only seven years old. Harald is so overcome with grief for his favorite child that his immune system weakens. When he develops pneumonia, Harald's only way of getting over the illness is to fight it using his own willpower and strength; there is no medicine available to him at the time. Dahl comments that his father's grief was so strong that he lost the will to live, and let pneumonia take him. The tragedies of Astri's and Harald's unexpected deaths occur within weeks of each other, a dramatic shift in reality for Dahl's mother to assimilate, especially when she is due to deliver another child in two months. However, Dahl's mother's grief doesn't prevent her from raising her children in a way that honors her husband's spirit.
Rudimentary Medical Practices
Another of the subjects Dahl repeatedly returns to is rudimentary medical practices. The theme first arises in the opening chapter, when Dahl recounts how his father fell off a roof at the age of fourteen and fractured his elbow. While the same accident in the modern day would likely result in an ambulance ride, immediate medical attention, and a sling or cast, for Dahl's father in the Norwegian countryside in the late 1800s, the only help was the drunk local doctor. Mistaking the fracture for a dislocated shoulder, the doctor got help in wrenching on the boy's arm, a misstep that led to young Harald having his arm amputated—without anesthetic. The theme comes up again when Dahl recounts how his father's first wife died following childbirth. His sister Astri also dies from appendicitis—a condition that could have been cured had penicillin been available in the era. Dahl's father dies soon after from pneumonia, another illness penicillin could have cured. Dahl's own encounters with doctors are also traumatizing: when in Norway, the local doctor removes the adenoids in his throat without anesthetic or warning. As Dahl reflects on how anesthetic-free operations performed within unsanitary conditions were the standard during his youth, he comments on how readers of the book probably would not enjoy having to undergo such outdated treatment.
Adventure
While most of Boy: Tales of Childhood is devoted to detailing Dahl's traumatizing experiences at school, adventure is nonetheless a crucial theme. At the end of his school years, Dahl has no interest in going to university, preferring to start a career with a company that will send him away from England and its peculiar hierarchies and sadistic traditions to some far-flung place. Dahl mounts the motorcycle he has been keeping secretly in a nearby garage and rides away from Repton, glad to know he's never going back to such an oppressive place. He then gets a job with Shell Oil in the hopes he will be assigned to work in Asia or Africa, seeing the work as merely a means to get him close to the animals and jungles of his dreams. Dahl is delighted to take on the adventure of moving to Africa for work, a career move that results in him learning Swahili. Dahl's craving for adventure is also satisfied by the outbreak of WWII, an event that prompts him to join the most adventurous branch of the British military—the Royal Air Force. As a fighter pilot, Dahl takes his hands off the controls to snap photos from the sky. He also shoots down enemies and gets shot down himself, crawling out of the flaming wreck only to get back in the sky six months later. Ultimately, it seems Dahl's experience of the oppressive English school system motivates him to seek the adventure and freedom he was denied.
Resilience
Resilience—the ability to spring back and recover from difficulties—is another significant theme in Boy: Tales of Childhood. While many of the memories Dahl recounts are traumatic, at no point is his spirit broken. Throughout his youth, Dahl maintains a playful attitude and never loses his love of freedom and adventure. His resilience is likely inherited or learned from his parents, both of whom rebound from tragedies. Harald loses his arm because of a doctor's error when he is fourteen, but he insists the only drawback to his disability is that it's impossible to cut the top off an egg. Dahl's mother, Sofie, has a similar capacity to deal with emotional pain, refusing to give in to despair when her daughter and husband die within weeks of each other. Dahl's mother also shows resilience when the family is thrown through their car's windshield during a crash. Taking charge, Sofie instructs her daughter how to move the car while sitting in glass and holding a bloody handkerchief over Dahl's torn-off nose. Dahl demonstrates his own resilience at the end of the book when he recalls how his plane was shot down in WWII, leading to a flaming crash he somehow crawled out of, only to fly again six months later.
