The Magic Finger is a 1966 children's book written by Roald Dahl.
A young girl has the inexplicable power to curse anyone who makes her angry with the Magic Finger. She hates hunting, and when her neighbors, the Gregg family, refuse to stop hunting, the power of the Magic Finger is upon them. The next day, the Greggs wake up in their beds the size of ducks and with duck wings. How are they going to get back to normal?
This book provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Hunting is cruel, and you should not do it unless you would be okay with someone doing the same to you.
- And Another Thing...: After the family have promised the ducks that they will throw away their guns, the ducks tell them to come down from the tree, with the final words "By the way, may I congratulate you for the nest. For a first effort, it's pretty good."
- Berserk Button:
- The premise of the story is that an eight-year-old girl points her magic finger at anybody who makes her angry, and terrible things happen to that person. She cannot stand anybody hunting animals, and when the Gregg family hunt ducks, she puts the Magic Finger on them all; the family turn into duck-sized people, with wings instead of arms, and end up nesting in a tree for the night. Meanwhile, their house is invaded by four human-sized ducks, with arms instead of wings.
- For the Greggs:
- The human-sized ducks using the stove, handling Mr. Gregg's gun, sleeping one of the boys' beds and playing with the other's electric train set.
- Book Dumb: The girl adds 8 + 3 to make 10 and spells "cat" with a "k".
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: In one edition, a picture shows the parents hiding their sons' eyes with their wings when the ducks are pointing the guns at them.
- Due to the Dead: As part of the family's atonement for hunting ducks, Mrs. Gregg buries the sixteen ducks they shot in small graves and lays flowers on them.
- Forced Transformation: This is the main character's special ability, although it so horrifies her that she never uses it unless she's really annoyed with someone.
- Foreshadowing:
- Earlier in the book, the girl talks about the first instance where she used the magic finger and turned her school teacher Mrs Winter into a half-human, half-cat hybrid for trying to punish her for misspelling the word "cat".
- After the girl puts the magic finger on the Greggs, Mr. Gregg and his sons encounter four ducks who dodge their shot and persue them all the way home. They are still circling the house when Mr. Gregg goes out to fetch wood for the fire, this creeps him out enough to forget about the wood and immediately suggest he and Mrs Gregg should hit the sack immediately.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Mr. Gregg has to do this to his wife and sons when they start to cry over the reality of having duck wings instead of arms and being shut out of their own house by human-sized ducks and this is before they experience the very worst of what their situation can throw at them!
- Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: The narrator is a young girl who can point at anyone who makes her angry and turn them partway into an animal.
- Handy Mouth: When the Greggs have their arms replaced by duck wings, they use their mouths to carry sticks and build a nest in a tree, since the ducks have taken over their house. This is inverted when it is discussed that it is extremely difficult for them to eat apples from a tree with their mouths, with no hands to hold them with.
- Heel–Face Turn: When the human-sized ducks are threatening to shoot them, Mr. Gregg promises that he'll never hunt any duck, deer, or other animal ever again and destroy his guns to make it final. He and his family follow through with their promise.
- Here We Go Again!: The story ends with the girl hearing gunshots and running off to find the Cooper family as she feels her finger heating up.Girl: You wait and see! They'll be nesting in the trees tonight, every one of them!
- Hunting Is Evil: The girl narrator's Berserk Button is hunting and she yells at the Greggs every time they return home with a new catch. As she has magic powers that are set off when she gets too angry, she accidentally turns them all into human-bird hybrids. After they get a taste of what being a bird is like, the Greggs promise to never hunt again when several ducks (who have become human-sized and have grown hands) threaten them at gunpoint.
- Karmic Transformation:
- A family of hunting enthusiasts grow wings, shrink to the size of small birds, and are forced to live in a nest in a tree while a family of anthropomorphic ducks move into their house.
- Earlier in the book, the girl's school teacher Mrs Winter becomes half-human, half-cat for trying to punish the girl for misspelling the word cat.
- Literal Transformative Experience: The Greggs, a family of hunting enthusiasts, sprout wings, shrink to the size of small birds and are forced to live in a tree in their garden, while a family of anthropomorphic ducks move into their house. The ducks eventually threaten the hunters with their own guns, but the hunters get the ducks to back down by swearing to renounce their hunting lifestyle and become vegetarian, at which point the ducks allow them back into the house and the transformation wears off. After this, Mr. Gregg is seen smashing the family's guns with a hammer while Mrs. Gregg lays flowers on a makeshift grave for the many victims of past hunts, and Philip and William scatter birdseed for a huge flock of birds.
- Little Bit Beastly: Anyone affected by the Magic Finger gains animalistic features. Mrs. Winter grows whiskers and a tail after scolding the girl for spelling "cat" incorrectly, and the Greggs get their arms turned into wings.
- Meaningful Rename: After vowing never to hunt ducks, deer or other animals again, the Gregg family changes their last name to Egg to honor their feathered friends.
- Mugging the Monster: Because nobody knows about the Magic Finger, anyone who makes the girl angry risks getting hit by it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The girl genuinely fears for the Greggs after she puts the magic on them and tries to call them by phone and only hears a duck quacking in response.
- No Name Given: The girl with the power of the Magic Finger is never given a name.
- Permissive Parents: Mr. Gregg allows his sons, who are eight and eleven years old, to hunt with him. After they turn into birds, however, they give up their hunting ways.
- Punny Name: The Greggs change the family name to Egg after vowing never to hunt animals, especially ducks, again.
- Riddle for the Ages: It is never explained where the power of the Magic Finger comes from. Not even the girl knows, just that she has been able to do it her whole life.
- Space Whale Aesop: Don't hunt ducks (or deer or any other animal), or you will wake up one day as a winged human the size of a duck while the ducks will become humanoid and hunt you for sport.
- Symbolic Weapon Discarding: The Gregg family are forced to live as ducks for a day as revenge for hunting and killing them. Afterwards, the family vows to live as vegetarians, and Mr. Gregg smashes the family's guns into pieces with a huge hammer.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The Greggs kill a young deer early in the book, this proves to be the final straw for the girl and she puts the magic finger on them.
- The human-sized ducks are perfectly willing to shoot Philip and William, who are young boys. When Mrs. Gregg protests that they wouldn't hurt her children, the duck just retorts that Mr. Gregg shot all six of its children yesterday.
