The Thing Itself
Dahl commences this strange addition to his body of work by addressing the inherent irony right from the opening words. Dahl’s entire career had been constructed painting grown-ups as the enemy and rebellious kids as his heroes. That dynamic is, by definition, completely transformed here as kids are being warned to respect the authority of adults on the issue of advice on train safety.
Not So Different
In seeking to justify the polar opposition to his previous work which this text takes, Dahl is moved to rationalize his advice for kids to listen to adults telling them what to do and not to do all of a sudden. This justification is situated explicitly: “this time it’s a bit different because the DOs and DON’Ts that I am going to give you may easily SAVE YOUR LIFE.” The irony here is rather obvious: lots—if, indeed, not most—of the advice on what to do and not do in life that adults give kids could potentially save lives.
Throwing Things Out Windows
The section cautioning against throwing things from a moving train through an open window is stepped in the irony of the unexpected and unlikely. Of all the items which could be used as examples, one of the least likely possibilities is ironically offered: a hat filled with urine. Further irony is overlaid when the hat that is tossed through the window hits a porter standing on the platform of the small station the train is passing.
Evolution
Dahl offers a purposely ironic anti-scientific understanding of the processes of Darwinian evolution as a means of launching a digressive attack upon the automobile. What Dahl is actually suggesting here adheres more closely to the discredited theories of Lamarckian evolution:
“It was a lovely world to live in, but now the motor car has ruined it. It has also, to some extent, ruined us. Everyone goes everywhere by car these days, and perhaps in a few hundred years from now our great-great-great grandchildren will be born with hardly any legs at all because they won’t have any use for them.”
Conflicting Advice
Perhaps the single greatest irony of this pamphlet offering safety advice when dealing with railways is that Dahl seems to have unwittingly offered completely contradictory advice. The two examples stand in such stark opposition to each other that only one or the other can effectively be termed advice which enhances safety rather than increasing danger. On the one hand:
“Never put anything on the railway line...even if the driver sees something on the line ahead of him, he usually cannot stop in time.”
while on the other hand:
"If your bike gets stuck, perhaps in the rails, while you are crossing, just leave it and keep going.”
