Lamb to the Slaughter

As a group, the class read Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl. The story starts off by telling about Mary Maloney, woman who is six months pregnant and the perfect example of a stepford wife. She is literally obsessed with her husband, Patrick and making him content. When he arrives home after work(he is a police officer), Mary makes drinks and after consuming two very strong drinks, Patrick announces that he is leaving her. Mary is clearly shocked. Since Mary is almost controlled by Patrick, she doesn't know how to react. So she continues on as if nothing is wrong and starts making supper for him. After grabbing a frozen leg of lamb from the freezer she finds Patrick by the living room window and whacks him over the head with the meat. He falls to the ground and Mary assumes he is dead. Then she continues to prepare the lamb. As she is doing so, she contemplates turning herself in to the police but she doesn't know if she was found guilty if the public would demand her baby be killed also. Because she doesn't want her baby to die she decides to lie and cover up her killing. To cover it up she goes to the grocer store and acts as if everything is alright. When she returns home she sees Patrick on the floor and cries her heart out. Next she calls the police station and they come to confirm that Patrick is dead. As the investigate the realise Patrick must have been killed from a heavy metal object such as a sledge hammer. The police do not suspect Mary to be the killer because she has an alibi(the grocery store) and the grocer Sam says Mary was acted perfectly normal. As it becomes late and Mary offers supper to the officers. They all stay and eat the leg of lamb. While they are eating one says that the murder weapon is probably right under their noses and in the other room Mary giggles.

Now to be perfectly honest, I love this story. When it comes to intriguing and eerie stories Roald Dahl never disappoints. It was very well written, making me want to read ahead. The beginning makes you think the story will be about the new family's adventure, with a new baby on the way. Yet when the husband comes home and is acting weird you begin to question what the story is really about. And then WHAM! Mary kills Patrick. You read on as it speaks of her rage, then pain and next her cunning plan. The ending is extremely humorous, making you literally laugh out loud(at the very least, it made me laugh). I really enjoyed this story and from now on whenever a guy is being mean, I'll know to simply threaten him with a leg of lamb.

To read the full story instead of my summary click the link bellow http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html