Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The
story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate
factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka.
Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory was first published in the
The story
was originally inspired by Roald Dahl's experience of chocolate companies
during his schooldays. Cadbury would often send test packages to the schoolchildren
in exchange for their opinions on the new products. At that time (around the
1920s), Cadbury and Rowntree's were England's two largest chocolate makers and
they each often tried to steal trade secrets by sending spies, posing as
employees, into the other's factory. Because of this, both companies became
highly protective of their chocolate-making processes. It was a combination of
this secrecy and the elaborate, often gigantic, machines in the factory that
inspired Dahl to write the story.
Plot
The story
revolves around a poor young boy named Charlie Bucket born to a penniless,
starving family. He resides with both his paternal and maternal grandparents
who are bedridden. Along with Charlie's mother and father, they dwell in a
dilapidated, tiny house. Charlie is fascinated by the universally-celebrated
chocolate factory located in his hometown owned by famous chocolatier Willy
Wonka. His Grandpa Joe often narrates stories to him about the chocolate
factory and about its mysterious proprietor, and the mysteries relating to the
factory itself; how it had gone defunct for years until it mysteriously
re-opened after Wonka's secret sweet recipes had been discovered (albeit no
employees are ever seen leaving the factory).
Soon after, an
article in the newspaper reveals that Willy Wonka has hidden a Golden Ticket in
five chocolate bars being distributed to anonymous locations worldwide, and
that the discovery of a Golden Ticket would grant the owner with passage into
Willy Wonka's factory and a lifetime supply of confectionery. Charlie longs for
chocolate to satisfy his hunger and to find a Golden Ticket himself, but his
chances are slim (his father has recently lost his job, leaving the family all
but destitute) and word on the discovery of the tickets keeps appearing in
various news articles read by the Bucket family, each one going to
self-centred, bratty children: an obese, gluttonous boy named Augustus Gloop, a
spoiled brat named Veruca Salt, a record-breaking gum chewer named Violet
Beauregarde, and Mike Teavee, an aspiring gangster who is unhealthily obsessed
with television. Eventually, Charlie finds a ticket of his own.
The children,
once at the factory, are taken to the Chocolate Room, where they are introduced
to Oompa Loompas, from Loompaland, who have been helping Wonka operate the
factory. While there, Augustus falls into the chocolate and is sucked up by a
pipe and eliminated from the tour. They are soon taken to the Inventing Room,
where Violet chews a piece of experimental gum, and blows up into a blueberry;
she is the second child rejected from the tour. After an exhausting jog down a
series of corridors, Wonka allows them to rest outside of the Nut Room, but refuses
them entry. Veruca, seeing squirrels inside, demands one from Wonka, but when
she is refused, she invades the Nut Room, where the squirrels attack her, judge
her a bad nut and throw her down the garbage chute. Likewise with her parents,
who go in to rescue her. They go on the Great Glass Elevator to the Television
Room, where Mike accidentally shrinks himself to a few inches tall using a
teleporter Wonka invented, and is the last to be eliminated from the tour.
Charlie, being
the last child left, wins the prize - the factory itself. Wonka had distributed
the Golden Tickets to find an heir, and Charlie was the only one who passed the
test. Together they go to Charlie's house in the glass elevator and take the
whole family back to the chocolate factory to live out the rest of their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment