Beware of the Dog

“He was still flying the Spitfire. His right hand was on the stick and he was working the rudder-bar with his left leg alone.”

This is the first allusion to the fact that Peter has lost his leg. Despite the severity of the injury, the language is calm and assured, closely reflecting Peter’s own mindset; he believes he can still confidently fly all the way home. The use of wartime-specific jargon (“Spitfire”) sets the scene and aligns the reader with Peter’s point of view as an experienced pilot.

“It had nothing to do with him. It was just a mess which happened to be there in the cockpit; something strange and unusual and rather interesting. It was like finding a dead cat on the sofa.”

Peter observes his injured, missing leg with a sense of morbid detachment. This evocative simile implies a comfort with violence along with a sense of dissociation. These tendencies could be seen as potential coping mechanisms developed by Peter and other soldiers as a result of being exposed to extreme trauma during wartime. The dark yet strange imagery is also typical of Dahl’s other works.

“His head kept falling forward onto his chest because his neck seemed no longer to have any strength. But he knew that he was flying the Spitfire. He could feel the handle of the stick between the fingers of his right hand.”

Peter begins to lose consciousness. However, sensory details continue to serve as ways to ground him and bring him back to reality. Even during dire, disorienting circumstances, he can orient himself via concrete clues such as the feel of the airplane controls in his hand.