Lamb to the Slaughter

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Slide 1: Slide
EngelsMiddelbare schoolhavoLeerjaar 4

This lesson contains 32 slides, with interactive quizzes and text slides.

time-iconLesson duration is: 120 min

Items in this lesson

Slide 1 - Slide

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Learning goals:
- You understand and know how to use the correct terminology for the analysis. (character types, Pro and antaganist, Irony and plot.

Slide 2 - Slide

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Lamb to the slaughter
Roald Dahl
British author
Wrote both children's and adult books and stories
Children's often funny
Adults often bizar. 
Written in 1953

Slide 3 - Slide

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Quick recap

Slide 4 - Slide

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Foreshadowing?

Slide 5 - Mind map

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Freitag's pyramid

Slide 6 - Open question

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Setting?

Slide 7 - Mind map

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What tragic news does Patrick give Mary at the beginning of the story? How do you think this impacts her emotionally? How does she react?

Slide 8 - Open question

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What does Patrick Maloney tell Mary before she kills him?
A
He does not like her cooking.
B
That he is not happy with his job.
C
That he is having an affair.
D
That he wasn't hungry.

Slide 9 - Quiz

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Analyze the story by using Freitag's pyramid.

Slide 10 - Open question

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What points can be seen as the climax of this story?
A
Patrick being murdered
B
The police giving their estimation about the murder weapon and that it is still in the house.
C
The detectives eating the murder weapon.
D
Mary calling the police to report her husband's murder.

Slide 11 - Quiz

In order to understand what happens after the climax, one must first be able to pinpoint the point of maximum tension in the story. In the case of "Lamb to the Slaughter," there are in some ways two climaxes. The first of these is at the point in which Mary attacks her husband and kills him. This is the culmination of everything that has happened to this point in the story. The story then pulls back and allows the action to fall.
• The second and main climax of the story occurs when the detective notices that the oven is still on with the leg of lamb cooking. This is the point at which the detectives are closest to discovering the murder weapon and Mary has to keep from being caught. The conflict then begins to rise again as she creates an alibi and brings in the police to catch the murderer.

What is the rising action in the story?
A
When Patrick tries to work up enough courage to deliver the bad news.
B
When the policemen arrived.
C
When Mary gets the leg of lamb from the freezer after being in shock.
D
When Mary called the police.

Slide 12 - Quiz

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What is the falling action in the story?
A
Mary crying to the police.
B
Mary giggling.
C
The policemen eating the evidence.
D
When Mary cooks the lamb, goes to the store to buy vegetables and rehearses.

Slide 13 - Quiz

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Slide 14 - Slide

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Write your impression of Mary Maloney as a wife. Multiple answers are possible.

Slide 15 - Open question

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What is the significance of Patrick's profession and Mary's interaction with the police?

Slide 16 - Open question

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Answer
The police will look for a killer more vigorously if a fellow officer is killed, but also that she knows the officers who will investigate the crime. This means that they are more likely to be comfortable with her.

Also important is the understanding that Mary is likely to have an alibi and spared from being arrested for the crime.

Finally, as the wife of a police detective, Mary has almost certainly heard many stories about crimes that he has solved and how he has done it.

Slide 17 - Slide

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Justify the title of the story "Lamb to the Slaughter."

Slide 18 - Open question

The origin of this phrase occurs in the Bible, both in the book of Isaiah, and the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah, it states, “But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, And let us cut him off from the land of the living, That his name be remembered no more” (Ch 11, verse 19).

The title "Lamb to the Slaughter" has multiple layers of meaning. On a literal level, a frozen leg of lamb "slaughters" or kills Mr. Malone when his wife Mary whacks him on the head with it, but "lamb to the slaughter" is also a phrase meaning an innocent person who is sacrificed to serve the needs of others.
One could say the innocent Mary, who is likened as the story opens to a gentle, loving Madonna, has been the lamb metaphorically slaughtered to serve her husband's needs. Although she is heavily pregnant, her husband tells her is going to divorce her. This is a blow Mary didn't see coming and could be considered a death knell to all her dreams. He tells her he doesn't expect her to make a fuss but merely to step aside to suit his desire for a new life.
Mr. Malone could also be understood as the lamb to the slaughter as he has absolutely no idea his wife is about to murder him.
Finally, the policeman could be characterized as lambs to the slaughter as they innocently eat the murder evidence when Mary serves them the leg of lamb that she used to murder her husband for dinner. She "plays" them for all they all worth, then laughs when they are gone. The title encompasses the many ways people are used or duped in this story.
Conflict: protagonist and antagonist

Slide 19 - Slide

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Who is the protagonist (main character) in "The Lamb to the Slaughter?"
A
Jack Noonan, the detective
B
Mary Maloney
C
Patrick Maloney
D
Sam, the greengrocer

Slide 20 - Quiz

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Who is the antagonist in the story?
A
Mary Maloney
B
Patrick Maloney
C
Jack Noonan
D
the detectives

Slide 21 - Quiz

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2 types of characters
Dynamic character 

Static character

Slide 22 - Slide

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Dynamic character
Character that changes during the story (narrative) and learns from the changes. 
e.g. through conflict, challenges, experience.

Slide 23 - Slide

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Describe the first dynamic character moment in the short story.

Slide 24 - Open question

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Open question: Do you think Mary Maloney is "a good wife" to Patrick? Explain your answer in at least ten words.

Slide 25 - Open question

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Situational Irony
when one’s efforts produces the opposite results of what was expected 
or
difference between what you expect can/will happen and what actually happens

Slide 26 - Slide

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What is an example of situational irony in 'Lamb to the slaughter'?
A
Mary 's personality
B
Patrick's personality
C
The police looking for the murder weapon
D
Mary going shopping for supper.

Slide 27 - Quiz

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Dramatic Irony
when the audience/reader knows things the characters do not. Because of this the audience may foresee (NOT FORESHADOW) the outcome. 

Slide 28 - Slide

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Name three situations in the story that could be seen as dramatic irony.

Slide 29 - Open question

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What happens to the murder weapon?
A
Mary threw it away.
B
Mary puts it back into the freezer.
C
Jack Noonan found it under the sofa.
D
The detectives ate it.

Slide 30 - Quiz

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What are some themes of Lamb to the Slaughter?

Slide 31 - Open question

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Courtroom case (story)
Debate

Slide 32 - Poll

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