Paragraphs 83-101

​Chapter 1 - Paragraphs 83-101

By Jennifer Cruz

Objective: Students will summarize the main events from paragraphs 83–101 and use evidence to explain how Dahl feels about the people around him.

Open Ended

Why do you think people hide certain things about themselves? Give an example.

​Key moments in paragraphs 13-82:

• .At breakfast, the Major embarrasses Dahl by accusing him of staring at his wife.

• Dahl insults polo by accident, causing the Major and his wife to stop speaking to him.

• Dahl meets Miss Trefusis, a coffee-farm owner from Kenya.

• Miss Trefusis explains that everyone who lives in Africa becomes a bit “dotty.”

• She shows her extreme habits, such as eating oranges with a knife and fork so she never touches food with her fingers.

• She rants about how disgusting toes are, revealing more of her eccentric personality.

• Dahl learns “my boy” means her servant, not her child.

83 I liked Miss Trefusis. She was impatient, intelligent, generous and interesting. I felt she would come to my rescue at any time, whereas Major Griffiths was vapid, vulgar, arrogant and unkind, the sort of man who’d leave you to the crocodiles. He might even push you in. Both of them, of course, were completely dotty. Everyone on the ship was dotty, but none, as it turned out, was quite as dotty as my cabin companion, U. N. Savory.

84 The first sign of his dottiness was revealed to me one evening as our ship was running between Malta and Port Said. It had been a stifling hot afternoon and I was having a brief rest on my upper berth before dressing for dinner.

Multiple Choice

How does Dahl compare Miss Trefusis and Major Griffiths?

• Both are kind and polite

• Both are rude and boring

• Miss Trefusis is kind; the Major is arrogant and unkind

• Miss Trefusis is rude; the Major is friendly

85 Dressing? Oh yes, indeed. We all dressed for dinner every single evening on board that ship. The male species of the Empire-builder, whether he is camping in the jungle or is at sea in a rowing-boat, always dresses for dinner, and by that I mean white shirt, black tie, dinner-jacket, black trousers and black patent-leather shoes, the full regalia, and to hell with the climate.

86 I lay still on my bunk with my eyes half open. Below me, U. N. Savory was getting dressed. There wasn’t room in the cabin for two of us to change our clothes simultaneously, so we took it in turns to go first. It was his turn to dress first tonight. He had tied his bow-tie and now he was putting on his black dinner-jacket. I was watching him rather dreamily through half-closed eyes, and I saw him reaching into his sponge-bag and take out a small carton. He stationed himself in front of the washbasin mirror, took the lid off the carton and dipped his fingers into it. The fingers came out with a pinch of white powder or crystals, and this stuff he proceeded to sprinkle very carefully over the shoulders of his dinner-jacket. Then he replaced the lid on the carton and put it back in the sponge-bag.

87 Suddenly I was fully alert. What on earth was the man up to? I didn’t want him to know I’d seen, so I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. This is a rum business, I thought. Why in the world would U. N. Savory want to sprinkle white stuff on to the shoulders of his dinner-jacket? And what was it, anyway? Could it be some subtle perfume or a magic aphrodisiac? I waited until he had left the cabin, then, feeling only slightly guilty, I hopped down from my bunk and opened his sponge-bag. EPSOM SALTS, it said on the little carton! And Epsom salts it was! Now what good could Epsom salts possibly do him sprinkled on his shoulders? I had always thought of him as a queer fish, a man with secrets, though I hadn’t discovered what they were. Under his bunk he kept a tin trunk and a black leather case. There was nothing odd about the tin trunk, but the case puzzled me. It was roughly the size of a violin case but the lid didn’t bulge as the lid of a violin case does, and it wasn’t tapered.It was simply a three-foot-long rectangular leather box with two very strong brass locks on it.

Multiple Choice

What does U. N. Savory sprinkle on his jacket?

• Sugar

• Flour

• Baby Powder

• Epson Salts

Multiple Choice

What does Savory pretend the Epsom salts are when people notice them?

• Flour

• Dust

• Dandruff

• Mold

Multiple Choice

Based on paragraphs 83–101, how does Dahl feel about the other passengers on the ship?

• He feels he fits in

• He admires all of them

• He thinks they are all completely dotty (crazy)

• He wants to be exactly like them