A Note About Witches – The seven-year-old, never-named English narrator explains at the outset of the story he is about to relate that witches are real, that they are evil, that they hate children and spend their lives plotting to get rid of them, that they blend in easily, and that they could be any woman anywhere. This, the narrator explains, is part of what makes them so dangerous to children, as well as the fact that witches don’t ordinarily look dangerous. The narrator asks the reader to observe a drawing of two women, and asks which is the witch. The narrator says there is no way to know.
“The Witches” is a children’s horror novel by Roald Dahl in which an unnamed seven-year-old boy and his grandmother seek to bring down all the witches of the world before the witches kill all the children around the globe. These witches, the narrator explains early in the novel, are actually real. They are not the exaggerated cartoons or silly depictions one sees in pop culture, but are truly evil beings. As the reader learns through Grandmamma, witches are actually not people, but demons in human form. The narrator explains that the most dangerous thing about witches is that they cannot be easily distinguished from real people. Here, the author alludes to one of his primary themes, in which he uses horror as a way to warn about trusting strangers. Just because someone looks harmless, does not mean that person is harmless. This is a strong warning for all children reading the novel.
