Television

Question 1

Why do parents give their children television?

Answer 1

Parents give their children television so that:

1. Their children do not climb out of the window sill.
2. Their children never fight or punch.
3. They are free to cook the lunch.
4. They are free to wash the dishes in the sink.

Question 2

What are the effects of Television on Children?(any 4)

Answer 2

Television:

1. Rots the sense in the head.
2. Kills the imagination dead.
3. Clogs and clutters up the mind.
4. Makes the child so dull and blind that they cannot understand a fantasy, a fairyland.
5. Makes the child’s brain as soft as cheese.
6. Makes the child’s thinking powers rust and freeze.
7. Makes it so that the child cannot think - they only see.

Question 3

Where were books located?

Answer 3

1. They were located in bookshelves in nurseries.

2. They were located by the bed in the bedroom.

Question 4

Who were the characters in the books?

Answer 4

Dragons, Gypsies, Queens, Whales

Question 5

What were subjects of the books(for older children)?

Answer 5

1. Treasure Isles.
2. Distant Shores.
3. Smugglers which rowed with muffled oars.
4. Pirates wearing purple pants.
5. Sailing ships and elephants
6. Cannibals crouching around the pot, stirring away at something hot(here, Roald Dahl alludes to his own work and calls the thing that is being stirred Penelope).

Question 6

What were some of the Beatrix Potter characters/stories listed by Roald Dahl?

Answer 6

1. Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter
2. Squirrel Nutkin
3. Piglin Bland
4. Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
5. Just How The Camel Got His Hump
6. How The Monkey Lost His Rump
7. Mr. Toad
8. Mr. Rat
9. Mr. Mole

Question 7

How would children react to the removal of TV and addition of bookshelves?

Answer 7

1. Initially, they would give dirty looks to their parents, they would scream and yell, they would bite and kick and they would hit their parents with sticks.
2. After a week or two, they would begin to feel the need to read. Once they begin to read, a joy will slowly grow in their hearts. They will not stop and they will become extremely keen on reading, wondering what they had seen in the television.
3. Later, the child would love their parent for what they did.

Question 8

Genre of Television

Answer 8

Didactic poem

Question 9

Themes of Television

Answer 9

1. Death of imagination

2. Importance of reading

Question 10

Repetition in Television

Answer 10

Repetition is used when the word “never” is constantly repeated in order to cement the importance of never giving a child access to a television screen.

Question 11

Synecdoche in Television

Answer 11

Syncecdoche is seen in Television in the phrase “The younger ones had Beatrix Potter”(wherein the name of the author Beatrix Potter is used to represent all of her works).

Question 12

Personification in Television

Answer 12

Personifcation is used in television in the phrase “It kills the imagination dead” in order to make the effect of television on a child’s imagination more gruesome and horrifying.

Question 13

Hyperbole in Television

Answer 13

Hyperbole is used in television in the phrase “A dozen eyeballs on the floor” in order to make the effect of television on the eyesight of children more gruesome and horrifying.

Question 14

Simile in Television

Answer 14

A simile is used in Television in the phrase “as soft as cheese” in order to make the effect of television on a child’s brain more gruesome and horrifying.