45 pages • 1 hour read
Roald DahlDanny, the Champion of the World
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1975A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Powerful Bond Between Father and Son
Danny the Champion of the World is largely a tribute from Danny to his father, revealing the love and gratitude he feels toward the man who selflessly raised him. The power of their love enables them to overcome adversity without dwelling on negativity. William is impoverished and lost his wife shortly after Danny was born, but Danny has never “had a moment’s unhappiness” (3). Danny is the center of William’s life and early in the narrative Danny muses, “I think that all the love he had felt for my mother when she was alive he now lavished upon me” (3). Despite the sadness William must feel over his loss, the narrative is not melancholic. William is also the center of Danny’s world. Danny idolizes him, describing him as a master mechanic, “a marvelous storyteller” (90), a “true countryman [and…] great naturalist” (102). Danny leaves the reader in no doubt about how he feels: “My father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvelous and exciting father any boy ever had” (8), and iterates these feelings with statements such as “it is impossible to tell you how much I loved my father” (11) scattered throughout the book.
Even though Danny spends all his free time with his father, he is a well-adjusted child who excels at school and has many friends. He simply prefers to spend time with his father, underscoring the strength of their relationship. This bond allows William and Danny to be content with what little they have, and the pleasure they derive from each other’s company casts a blissful light on simple activities like making a kite out of an old shirt. Mundane acts, such as picking apples to eat on their walks to school, are portrayed as idyllic because the apples are tied to memories of the wonderful conversations from their walks rather than the apples themselves.
The love and respect Danny and William have for each other allow Danny to forgive William for leaving him alone and for William to admit his mistake and sincerely promise not to keep secrets again. Danny’s conviction in his father’s promise is so strong that he knows William needs help in Hazell’s Wood instead of William breaking his promise, propelling him to go there despite being terrified. Equally, William’s faith and conviction in Danny explains his gentle response when Danny finds him in the pit: “Hello, my marvelous darling. Thank you for coming” (65), as if he knew Danny would save him.
William’s protectiveness toward Danny is shown by William’s refusal to serve Mr. Hazell after he insults Danny, and William’s gut reaction—“I’ll kill him” (117)—upon seeing Danny’s injured hand. William is immensely proud of Danny, who he truly sees as the “champion of the world” (153).
The Upper Class Versus the Lower Classes
Mr. Hazell, who is described as having an “enormous pink beery face” (179), is the epitome of greed. He owns acres of land around William’s filling station, which sits like a “little island in the middle of the vast ocean of Mr. Hazell’s estate” (42), and a brewery, but he still wants more. Mr. Hazell does everything he can to get William thrown out, sending inspectors in failed attempts to condemn William’s property so he can take it over. Although this was done partly as revenge following William’s refusal to serve him, it was also done out of greed to control the entire valley. In Mr. Hazell’s eyes, his fat pheasants and shiny Rolls-Royce are symbols of wealth and success, but to the townsfolk they symbolize greed and willful ignorance. Mr. Hazell does not consider the fact that “the cost of rearing and keeping one single pheasant up to the time it’s ready to be shot is equal to the price of one hundred loaves of bread” (91), or, more likely, he does not care. What he does care about is recognition from people he considers important, and for them he is very generous and “willing to pay almost anything” (90) to make a good impression.
The sad reality is that Mr. Hazell could spend all his vast accumulated wealth on the “fancy folk” and they would still not like him. Mr. Hazell’s greed has isolated him from the community he lives in and his determination to separate himself from those he sees as beneath him have left him friendless and suspicious, worried that the “filthy” lower class might steal or damage his material possessions. In stark contrast are the rest of the characters: William, Danny, Doc Spencer, Sergeant Samways, and the rest of the community, who are mostly humble working-class people looking out for each other and enjoying their lives. Although William and Danny live in poverty they appreciate and cherish what they have, both materially and emotionally. Despite being impoverished, Danny has a wealth of things to do because of his ingeniously creative father.
Poaching 120 pheasants might seem greedy of William, but the pheasants were to be shared with the community. Unlike Mr. Hazell, William and his friends are community minded, sharing skills, food, and friendship, and as a consequence, unlike Mr. Hazell, they are happy.
The Gray Area Between Right and Wrong
Dahl explores the quandary that arises when a crime is committed against someone who appears to deserve it. The fact that poaching from wealthy landowners was born out of necessity when townspeople and “families were literally starving” (30) and “a few miles away in the rich man’s wood, thousands of pheasants were being fed like kings twice a day” (30) does not dodge the fact that poaching is a crime: It is theft.
In Danny the Champion of the World Dahl is clearly on the side of the underdog, the humble working-class people who are oppressed by the sneering, wealthy upper class. Dahl’s descriptions of Mr. Hazell are consistently unflattering while his representations of William, Danny, and Doc are consistently positive, even while they are committing a crime or exacting revenge. Poaching Mr. Hazell’s pheasants is an example of a crime being accepted as “right” because everyone despises Mr. Hazell, there is a “tradition” of poaching, and William was hurt because of Mr. Hazell’s pits.
When Doc Spencer tells the story of Mr. Hazell kicking his dog and then giving Mr. Hazell an injection with the dullest needle he can find in revenge, everyone’s sympathy lies with the “good” Doc Spencer despite the doctor technically breaking his Hippocratic oath. The reader joins in with William’s “Hooray” at the thought of Mr. Hazell getting hurt because the crime and the punishment are equal: Quick physical harm was done to the dog, and the same quick physical harm was then enacted on Mr. Hazell. This moment feels like justice in an eye-for-an-eye mentality.
This weighing of crimes to determine justice is what turns the community against Mr. Hazell because they do not see Mr. Hazell, who is cruel and greedy, as deserving of his wealth and continued prosperity. When William goes to poach a pheasant or two, Mr. Hazell’s reaction is disproportionate to the crime in that Mr. Hazell will only lose a couple birds while William could have lost his life. This disparity creates anger and a drive for revenge. If the punishment had fit the crime—perhaps Mr. Hazell could have had the sergeant fine William for the cost of the birds, for example—then there would not be such a reaction. However, since Mr. Hazell’s reaction is far more dangerous than the crime, the citizens feel that revenge is justifiable, even if that revenge is technically against the law.
The power that likeability and personal history has on interpreting whether someone has done something wrong or “deserved” is also illustrated in the story. William has led an upstanding life as a great mechanic, amazing father, and kind member of the community, and Doc Spencer has been a beloved member of the community, caring for its people, especially the children, for 45 years.” When compared with Mr. Hazell, who has a miserable history of selfishness and self-important social climbing, it is easy to forgive and diminish wrongdoings by William and Doc Spencer when the recipient is Mr. Hazell.
Related Titles
By Roald Dahl
Featured Collections
Action & Adventure
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Daughters & Sons
View Collection
Fathers
View Collection
Juvenile Literature
View Collection
Laugh-out-Loud Books
View Collection
School Book List Titles
View Collection