Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- Analysis Continued

Firstly, it is Charlie’s grandparents who judge the attitudes of the first four children that find the Golden Tickets. The old folks, who read the newspaper together with their grandson to see who will be the winners, are quick to criticize fiercely the children’s bad habits and the spoiling attitude of the parents, who never refuse anything to their young.

Among all these, the reader discovers Charlie’s personality – a polite child who takes care of his grandparents, who loves them an stays with them during the night. This child endures much hunger and cold, and he dreams of entering the factory, but knows that he will only have one chance of doing so.

Once they set foot inside the factory, the children must face their biggest weakness; the Oompa-Loompas are there to punish them for their bad behavior. Only Charlie maintains a correct attitude, heeding the instructions given by Mr. Wonka, never touching or eating anything, even though he is extremely hungry. From the first moment, Willy Wonka shows some preference for this adorable boy and his grandfather. It is due to Charlie’s kindness that Willy Wonka gives him the great prize, something that Charlie never would have dreamed of, the biggest possible reward for him and his family.

Augustus Gloop’s gluttony, Veruca Salt’s poor education, arrogance and temperament, the chewing-gum addiction and rudeness towards their parents and peers that Violet Beauregard and Mike Teavee display, together with the latter’s obsession about television, are four attitudes that Roald Dahl criticizes and the Oompa-Loompas punish. Later, these attitudes are directly condemned in the workers’ songs.

Of all the Oompa-Loompas’ songs, the one I like the most is the song dedicated to Mike Teavee. It is the longest of all, and in it Roald Dahl expresses his argument against television and in favor of reading.

Many things could be said about this book, and there are many that I like. The children enjoy an entertaining story, with wonderfully described characters, that catch their attention from the first moment. Adults, too, can have a good laugh and they can see the story from a double point of view concerning each of the characters and their attitudes. The story could also make them aware of a certain attitude that they should have in front of children.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a wonderful story, full of imagination and a great sense of humor, bound to be read again and again. It is suitable for people of all age, from 9-year-old children, to seniors aged 100. I highly recommend it.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-- Analysis

In this book, Roald Dahl creates a fantastic universe full of different aromas and flavors. Nothing is more attractive to a child than sweets, chocolate, toffees and everything that can be found inside a weird but surprising factory that emanates the most amazing scents in the world.

Right form the title, without knowing too much about the story, the book can easily attract children. But the genius of Roald Dahl goes much further. All his works involve social criticism; in this book, the critical message is conveyed by the four “bad children”, as Wonka calls them, on the one hand, and Charlie on the other hand, and their radically opposite attitudes.

Apart from the good sense of humor that the author manages to transmit, we get to know these five children, five personalities, who end their visit to the chocolate factory in five different ways.

Firstly, it is Charlie’s grandparents who judge the attitudes of the first four children that find the Golden Tickets. The old folks, who read the newspaper together with their grandson to see who will be the winners, are quick to criticize fiercely the children’s bad habits and the spoiling attitude of the parents, who never refuse anything to their young.

Charlie and the chocolate factor-- the illustrations

Illustrations

As mentioned before, since there were multiple editions of the book, there were also several different illustrators who gave an image to Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket and the rest of the characters in this entertaining story.

One of them is Quentin Blake, whom we talked about in the article concerning Matilda. His illustrations were included in the 1975 edition of Dahl’s book. From this edition, the image of Willy Wonka stands out; thanks to Blake’s peculiar drawing style, Wonka looks closer to the extravagant character that Dahl describes. Throughout the drawings, he appears as if he was hopping along during the children’s visit, excited and anxious, enjoying every room that he was showing to the kids. The colors make the images very attractive and vivid.

However, the first edition of the book came to light with the drawings of another great illustrator, Faith Jacques. Born in 1923 in Leicester, the British illustrator – who also produced the drawings for the book’s sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator – is famous for the detail richness of his images. The book begins with the introduction of the Bucket family, and an illustration of all the members. These drawings, especially those of the grandparents, perfectly reflect the image of the old and tired grandparents who haven’t moved out of their bed for many years, because they lacked the strength.

The other characters are equally well drawn according to the description Dahl gives for each one of them.

The illustrations complement the story perfectly, helping the reader understand better the whole universe of Wonka.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factor - the author

The Author

On previous occasions, we have talked about Roald Dahl. This time, I wish to focus only on how he created Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Published in 1964, the book was extremely successful; within a month, its first edition was sold out in the United States and Great Britain. It has been translated in 32 languages.

However, after being published, Roald Dahl has been accused of racism with regard to the Oompa-Loompas. In the first edition of the book, the Oompa-Loompas are described as pygmies brought directly from Africa, and they are also illustrated as such in Faith Jacques’ drawings. As a result of the critics, the book was re-edited in 1975, this time with illustrations by Quentin Blake, and the Oopma-Loompas are now white, with brown hair and they come from an imaginary land called Loompaland.

The version I possess was published by Alfaguara Juvenil in 2003, and it contains the original illustrations drawn by Faith Jacques, and the original text about he Oompa-Loompas.

We could say that this story has an autobiographic theme, just like many other of Dahl’s works. Roald Dahl had sad childhood memories about everything that was related to school, due to the strict British educational system. In Boy: Tales of Childhood, one of the author’s autobiographical books, Dahl himself enters the famous  Repton Public School in Derbyshire, at the age of thirteen. This school was very close to the Cadbury factory, which produced chocolate and sweets. In that time, there was a strong rivalry between Cadbury and the Rowntree chocolate company, both of which had restricted access to their factories in order to avoid espionage, just like Willy Wonka does in the book. Cadbury used to send samples of their sweets to the school where Roald Dahl was studying, and ask for the children’s opinion about their products. These memories, together with Dahl’s broad imagination, got him to create this wonderful book.

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