The benefit to the reader of the old man using the mambo as the tool to kill Judson is obvious. It is as though the old man is waiting for an opportunity to get the better of Judson. Something that the old man does not do throughout the story. It may have been simpler for the old man to have accepted what Judson has done and to retaliate in a fashion in whereby the old man might physically strike Judson in anger. The old man may have realised that he has gone too far. It is as though by telling his story once and refusing to tell it again. However there is a sense that the old man as time passes and he tells his story to the pilot. The old man believing that this will satisfy his urge for revenge. He knows that Judson will be struck and bitten by the mambo and eventually killed. Something that becomes clearer to the reader by the fact that the old man when seeing the mambo begins to plot his revenge on Judson. The old man has not let go of what Judson has done to his dog. Taken from his The Complete Short Stories collection the story is a frame narrative and after reading the story the reader realises that Dahl may be exploring the theme of revenge. “She had been dead for some time.In An African Story by Roald Dahl we have the theme of revenge, hate, conflict, control and guilt. A gentle rumble announces that the surviving bombers are flying home to the British airfields. Back in the English cottage, the woman leans back against her chair with her eyes closed, clutching the blankets around her.
Knowing that survival is now impossible, she throws herself on top him and cries. She panics and tries to drag him from his seat, but he’s unconscious and she can’t undo the many buckles holding him down. She watches in fear as her son fights to control the plane while the crew bail out. There is an explosion and the cabin fills with smoke. She is worried, but he smiles at her and continues flying. She watches as the plane is hit and an engine catches fire. As the plane nears the battlefield, she can see searchlights and anti-aircraft fire through the windshield. She closes her eyes and begins to see the aircraft, and in her mind she is standing there next to him in the cockpit. She sits and begins to think of him, wishing she could see him and talk to him. He is her only child, and she knows that “there was nothing else to live for except this”.
She stands by the window and prays that God will keep her son safe. Suddenly there is a great throbbing noise overhead and she wakes.
On her dressing table is a picture of her son in his Royal Air Force uniform. Spoiler warning! In an English cottage, an old woman lies sleeping in the moonlight of her open window.
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