Mr Twit's Doggy Bag...

Or should I say doggy beard?

Copyright: Page 4 of The Twits, see works cited below

Mr Twit's Frightful Facial Hair

In Roald Dahl's 1980 children's novel The Twits, Dahl explores not only the aforementioned disgustingness of the 'adult' food, but also the grotesque behind food in its association with the even more grotesque adult body. To cut to the chase, Mr Twit keeps his left overs for later in his beard... an alternative 'doggy bag' you could say.

In the childrens novel, Dahl directly addresses the child reader, describing that unlike 'an ordinary unhairy face like yours or mine,'(p3) which can 'quickly' be cleaned if messy from eating, Mr Twit instead gathers food in his long beard. Dahl uses food to highlight the childish disgust in the adult body, continuously warning the children of 'the hairy man,'(3) and how susceptible he is to getting food caught in his facial hair. 

'there were always hundreds of bits of old breakfasts and lunches and suppers sticking to the hairs around his face. There weren't big bits ... but if you looked closely (not that you'd ever want to) you would see little specks of dried-up scrambled eggs stuck to the hairs, and spinach and tomato ketchup and fish fingers and minced chicken livers and all the other disgusting things Mr Twit liked to eat.'(p4) 

Dahl speaks directly to childrens' sense of humour, poking fun at both their food that they enjoy eating and are familiar with, like 'fish fingers' and 'ketchup,' as well as 'adult' food that they are typically repulsed by such as 'minced chicken liver.'

However, I have to admit - even I am slightly repulsed by offal... Even though I am hypocritically happy to eat any other cut of meat!

Copyright: Page 5 of The Twits, see works cited below

Here is a picture of Mr Twit's leftovers that he keeps in his beard to ensure that 'he never went really hungry.'(p5)

Enjoy that image!

Dahl, Roald. The Twits. Puffin, 2014.