How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"…I have discovered, Miss Honey, during my long career as a teacher that a bad girl is a far more dangerous creature than a bad boy. What's more, they're much harder to squash. Squashing a bad girl is like trying to squash a bluebottle. You bang down on it and the darn thing isn't there. Nasty dirty things, little girls are. Glad I never was one." (8.11)
How can the Trunchbull have never been a little girl? She's female, right, and she can't have been born at six feet tall and giant-size. And although she calls little girls nasty and hard to squash, we know that these adjectives apply to her just as much. She's the one who's awful and can't be squashed. And she squashes little girls all the time. Just look at poor Amanda Thripp.
Quote #5
"I'm sure you know," Miss Honey said, "that children in the bottom class at school are not expected to be able to read or spell or juggle with numbers when they first arrive. Five-year-olds cannot do that. But Matilda can do it all. […]" (9.27)
Miss Honey compares Matilda, the genius, against all the other five-year-olds there are. She says, very confidently, that there are things children that age simply are unable to do. The fact that she "can do it all" shows how exceptional Matilda is. She's young, sure, but she can do more than many adults (like, oh, her father).
Quote #6
"But does it not intrigue you," Miss Honey said, "that a little five-year-old child is reading long adult novels by Dickens and Hemingway? Doesn't that make you jump up and down with excitement?" (9.39)
In this moment, Miss Honey is the voice of reason. She's the one who is making sense. She's correct that if someone Matilda's age is doing such advanced things as reading Dickens and Hemingway, people should be amazed and excited. If Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood aren't excited, that shows they're the ones who are messed up, not Matilda.