Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What images are commonly associated with the word “witch”? What characteristics and behaviors are often associated with witches? List 5-6 familiar stories in which a witch plays a role. What comparisons can be made between their characterizations? Explain.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might join a partner or small group to brainstorm titles of literary works in which witches appear. Depending on the level of the class, students might review or be introduced to connotation as a literary term, then confer as a class or in small groups on whether “witch” is positive or negative in connotation. Groups may readily agree that the connotation is largely negative, but opportunities for critical thinking exist in discussing examples to support this negative connotation, ranking the comparative negativity, and examples that defy this connotation (e.g., Glinda the Good Witch of the South in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series). While the idea of historical and literary witches may represent a range of descriptions, Dahl defines a witch in this novel in a specific manner: a woman who despises children.