KidLit Forum

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Monika Bandi

Charlie and the chocolate factory, Roald Dahl IS THERE ANY HERO?PI have been wondering about the puzzling picture of the “hero ” in this story. Charlie gives the title to this book, it looks that he should be the hero. But, is this the image of a main character ? He takes no action at all, except for the luck of finding the Golden ticket, for his holding Grandpa ‘s hand tightly, he hardly makes himself heard or observed. So, who is the real hero in the book? It looks that Mr. Wonka should fit into this pattern. He is jovial, exuberant, active, and lively throughout the whole story. He controls the situations and eventually he turns out to be the savior of these spoilt children, in spite of the long-debated negative critics and controversies regarding his behavior, his ironic and even mean remarks.
Naturally, it is the vision of the author that we do not tend to accept. Comparing Charlie’s boring, humble, passive and obedient nature with that we find in Five children and It, in Narnia books or in Peter Pan it is obvious that from all perspectives a healthy society in progress would opt for the second type of curious, active, provocative, smart and independent kids.
Charlie would hardly succeed in a Darwinist society based on natural selection without any support. He would need a miracle. He has a fairy tale-like fate, similar to that of humble, inactive princesses found by the savior princes who would take care of them forever. Charlie is clearly not the ideal child figure in an adventure story. How many times does it happen in real life that all you have to do in life is to hold your grandpa’s hand and suddenly you are a factory owner?

Willy Wonka – a well-intentioned puppeteer in a possible horror story
Imagine things went wrong in the story. The scenario would be quite somber : Augustus-flavoured chocolate-coated Gloop! - canibalism'; Violet - a terrible, peculiar sight “her face and hands and legs and neck, in fact the skin all over her body – a monster; Veruca burnt in the incinerator – horror movie, war drama and Mike Teavee transformed into a grotesque midget. No matter what the end of the story is the pictures of these punished children might be quite distressful at certain ages for children with great imagination. Naturally, it is just fiction and all the happenings are followed by Wonka’s assurance that things will be fine. We, adults know for sure that it will be fine, but do children know this? Isn’t it a bit too dark? It is true that Mr Wonka has a very humorous state of mind, but isn’t it a bit cruel that there is only one person who laughs and all the others are disturbed, concerned and scared?
The way the little men make fun and sing those ironic songs addressed to the four children and their parents reminds me of a bunch of bullying teenagers in the USA or in England, places where such behavior has become almost a national concern. Specialists, teachers and parents are struggling to find solutions against the aggression and bullying among children of different age. What if there are children who admire this type of ridiculing others and copy such meanness. Once they appear in a book and it is funny to read them and it is funny to laugh at people with defects, they might think that this is cool. Could they read between the lines and realize that the author, in fact uses these lines to criticize parents and society? Maybe, maybe not. Anyhow, the language itself is inappropriate for children at younger age. They tend to copy negative aspects of life too easily, therefore offering them in a book rhymes that mock and offend people for different defects would be not a very good idea. Quotations are numerous:
“The great big greedy nincompoop! How long could we allow this beast To gorge and guzzle, feed and feast”.( Augustus)
“ There's almost nothing worse to see Than some repulsive little bum Who's always chewing chewing-gum. ( Violet)
'Veruca Salt, the little brute, Has just gone down the rubbish chute
If we can get him back his height. But if we can't — it serves him right.' (Mike)
Cristina Nedelea

This post is on behalf of Oana Gorgan

Charlie and the Chocolate factory:
The “Chocolate factory” symbolizes or makes a clear distinction between poverty and wealth. Here, the differences between those children and their families or between poor and rich are very well highlighted by the children’s behaviour, thoughts, feelings, and their way to act in different situations. Also the golden tickets play an important role because they are a physical manifestation of the differences between poverty and wealth.
With the help of these golden tickets, Charlie can see or feel the taste of wealth, which is not always the most significant thing in this world.
Charlie is very poor, he rarely has enough to eat, he sleeps with his parents and grandparents but he has DIGNITY, but the other children and their parents lack this quality, they use their influence all the unscrupulous methods to find the golden tickets.

It was interesting for me to analyze a little the characters` names. They all define each child`s addiction. But, eventually, these addictions will bring them their “end”.
"Gloop" sounds like the sound food makes when it goes down the throat, but when the alimentary bolus is pretty big and one tries to swallow it quickly. Augustus Gloop is a fat boy who eats a lot of sweets and he is very lickerish and glutton. He will be transformed in a thin boy and, probably, a more moderate one.
Veruca Salt is a girl who gets everything she wants. She just has to shout. Her name means a wart (Verruca plantaris) which is caused by the human papilloma virus occurring on the sole or toes of the foot. Like the wart, the girl is a pain in the back for everyone and listens to nobody. Because she is used to be a person with great influence and very spoiled, she will end up in trash, being humiliated and despised for her lack of common sense and self-absorption.
Violet Beauregarde likes to chew gum. It is a very annoying activity, when it is turned into an obsession. She stops this only when she eats, and she puts the gum behind her ear.
It`s a typical childish gesture. But she does not listen to Mr. Wonka when he tells her not to touch the special gum. So she turns into a huge violet blue berry. Beauregard \be(au)-regard, beaur(e)-ga-rd\ is actually a boy's name and is of French origin. Its meaning is "beautiful gaze". It`s a ironical name given to Violet, because she is not a “beautiful” person, nor at heart or at her looks.
Mike Teavee is a chills obsessed by TV. Teavee Is TV spelled differently. He is a violent kid, has lots of guns and wants to get in the TV. Eventually, he will end up being small and, literally, in the TV. He will be stretched into a very tall boy, and Mr. Wonka thinks Mike will become a famous basketball player (so, a TV star).
Charlie Bucket is a child with nothing but a loving, poor family. He has no TV, no gum, and the only chocolate he ever gets is once a year, for his birthday. But he has grandparents that tell his stories and develop his imagination. A “bucket” is a simple tool but is something that can be filled up, you can pour into it. So he is a child who can accumulate, who can be filled up with right education and morality.
Everything these children do are typical childish gestures and we might take into consideration that many children have more then one of these “faults”. But the author tries to present what happens if one takes these things to the extreme and that every bad thing children do can turn against them. This is a lesson of morality and education, of abuse and making children and parents aware of the dangers hidden in sweets, bad temper that is not educated, indulgence and bad education, but mainly in the lack of reading. TV is the most dangerous of all, making children stupid, with lack of imagination and perspective.
I see this book as a fairy tale in which Charlie is the “Cinderella” and Mr. Wonka the Good Fairy. All those other children are the bad sisters who will get punished for being so. The Chocolate Factory is a Fairy Land where every child`s dream may come true. The Oompa-Loompas are little elfs or spirits that help wishes come true. And the fact that Charlie gets the factory for himself represents the resetting of values, the poor characters is gratified for his good education, being well behaved and humble.

Considering what Cristina said with regard to Charlie actually being a winner or not, my opinion is that in his wish to criticize the way the other children were brought up the author exaggerated in not allowing Charlie to make any move. He is just an image, but this image of the perfect little boy has a flaw. It is, in my opinion the choice he makes when he finds the money. If the author had been true to the story and to the image he wanted to create for Charlie, he would have had him do something else with the money, but not use it for his own personal wish. So, to my mind the author wanted to create the image of the perfect child both for parents and for other children by showing them that if you are patient enough you will eventually get what you want.

In my opinion this is both a interesting and weird story in the same time. Throughout the story Wonka seemed to have known exactly what would happen with each character. After the few incidents things became predictable, you could guess what would happen to the next character.

An interesting idea is that of advertising in the book. We have global advertising and industrialization, making this more of a business than a story for kids.