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Lamb Interactive Reading

Fill out a character wheel Character Analysis for Mary Maloney. Draw inferences about what Patrick Maloney tells his devoted pregnant wife. What Is Mary Maloney's motive for trying to get away with murder?

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Clarissa Van Binsbergen
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46 views

Lamb Interactive Reading

Fill out a character wheel Character Analysis for Mary Maloney. Draw inferences about what Patrick Maloney tells his devoted pregnant wife. What Is Mary Maloney's motive for trying to get away with murder?

Uploaded by

Clarissa Van Binsbergen
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl Discussion Questions 1.

Fill out a character wheel character analysis for Mary Maloney.

Character Wheel
A Graphic Organizer for Character Analysis

What is characters PROBLEM? What are characters QUALITIES?

What does character WANT?

Mary Maloney
What are characters FEARS? C A!AC"#! C"#! What does character VALUE?

What are characters BIG IDEAS?

$. Fill out a character wheel for %atric& Maloney.

Character Wheel
A Graphic Organizer for Character Analysis

What is characters PROBLEM? What are characters QUALITIES?

What does character WANT?

Patrick Maloney
What are characters FEARS? C A!AC"#! C"#! What does character VALUE?

What are characters BIG IDEAS?

3. Draw inferences about what Patrick Maloney tells his devoted pregnant wife. What do we KNOW about what Patrick tells Mary? (There is clear textual support for each of these conclusions.) What do we NOT KNOW about what Patrick tells Mary? (Theres not enough textual support to confirm or contradict these hypotheses.)

4. What does Patrick Maloney say to Mary that causes her to snap, bring the frozen leg of lamb down on the back of his head?

5. Is Mary Maloneys murder of her husband premeditated or spontaneous? Explain your answer.

6. What is Mary Maloneys motive for trying to get away with murder?

7. Why does Mary Maloney go to the grocery to shop for a meal she does not plan to serve?

8. How can you account for Mary Maloneys shock and grief when she returns home to find Patricks body on the floor?

Hint: Before answering #8, CONNECT: Is it easy to believe something that turns your world upside down a shocking new reality that replaces the world as you knew it? Does it seem like a dream at first? If youve

had an experience like this, give an example.

9. How does Mary Maloney get the police to help her dispose of the murder weapon?

10. Fill in the blanks from the policemens dinner conversation which closes the story. One of them belched. Personally, I think [the murder weapon is] right here on the premises. Probably right under our very _________________. Want do you think, Jack? And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to ______________________. 11. Why do you think Roald Dahl made Patrick Maloney a policeman instead of an architect or a banker, for instance?

Hint - Break this down into two questions: a. How is being a detectives wife a help to Mary Maloney?

b. How does the fact that the detectives knew both Patrick and Mary Maloney affect their investigation?

12. Roald Dahl means for his readers to identify with Mary Maloney, to be on her side, and to giggle with her while the investigators munch on the murder weapon. List strategies Dahl uses to make Mary Maloney a sympathetic character (and Patrick Maloney an unsympathetic one)?

13. Does Dahls strategy work for you? Did you want Mary to get away with her

husbands murder? Why or why not?

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