Themes and message

Luck and Fate

One of the main themes of the short story “Dip in the Pool” by Roald Dahl is the theme of luck. Botibol believes that by being sneaky and gaining inside information from the purser about when and how the captain made his estimate, he can have better odds of winning the auction. He asks several people about their opinion on the weather but does not consider that nature is always unpredictable and does not follow human logic. 

When he first realizes he will lose the auction, he tries to take matters into his own hands and change his fate. He takes a desperate decision in the hopes that he will stall the boat and win the auction in the end. However, his plan does not go as he had intended despite the precautions he believes he has taken. The elderly woman he expects to alert othe...