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Literary Analysis Essay
Literary Analysis Essay
Lamb To Slaughter

How can a leg of lamb go from being dinner to a murder weapon? In the story, Lamb to Slaughter by Ronald Dahl, when Patrick Maloney comes home to his wife Mary Maloney and tells her that he’s divorcing her, Mary has somewhat of a mental breakdown and kills her husband by hitting him on the head with a leg of lamb. Also her being pregnant really affected her feeling towards the divorce because she had no ide that he wanted to leave her for so long. There was no warning, but the thought or him and her divorced made her very angry and calmly she reacted to his confession. This story shows that you never really know someone until you understand how everything that occurs can affect them and change them to become someone you’ve never seen before.

The author related the title to the story by connecting a harmless leg of lamb to what the wife uses it for. You can also think of it as ironic that lamb and slaughter are even in the same sentence because lambs are harmless and thought of as sweet and innocent. “For her it was always a wonderful day. She loved the warmth that came out of him when they were alone together. She loved the shape of his mouth, and she especially liked the way he didn’t complain about being tired.” This is a quote and supports the story because in the beginning the wife seemed so innocent and sweet and just was happy that Mr. Maloney was home and abruptly turned into a murderer. “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked behind him, swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.” The protagonist in this story is Mrs. Maloney and as soon as he tells her news that he is divorcing her is when we see the change in her and she turns from being a lamb to the slaughterer. He obviously didn’t know her as well as he thought he did because he had no idea that what he said would do that to her.

The main conflict is that Mr. Maloney

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