Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

[1]

Levis Leonardo Lozano Hoyos.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a children’s book written by Roald Dahl who was born in Llandaff a little town in Wales. He is a descendant of a Norwegian family.

Many of his books describe the rigid educational English System in which he was educated. (He was sent to a boarding school when he was 7 years old).

As soon as he finished High School instead of following his parent’s desire to register at the University, he went to work at the Shell International Oil Company in Africa. Working there the Second World War started and he joined the army. He was an Air Pilot of the Royal Air Force. He was wounded and spent 6 months at a hospital.

Before writing children’s stories he wrote about his war adventures. After that, being inspired by telling stories to his children he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964. 

The story I want you to read was inspired by Roald’s experience as a student at Repton School. A chocolate company used to send its products to be tasted by children in exchange for their opinion about them. In 1920 there were two large chocolate companies in England Cadbury and Rowntree, and it is believed that both used to send spies to work in each company to steal recipes.

This fact can be identified in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when Willy Wonka closed his company and fired all his workers.  The companies that competed with Wonka’s company and were stealing his recipes are The Factory of Fickelgruber which started to elaborate an ice cream that never melted. The Prodnose factory also elaborated a chewing gum that never lost its flavor. In addition, the Slugworth Factory also created candy balloons that grew gigantic before being pricked with pins and eaten. (See the chapter the secret workers).

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Even though this story is among the most popular children’s literature it seems to me that it is so cruel. Therefore, it must be read by children with their parents’ assistance Mr. Wonka is a strange man who has a chocolate factory and invites 5 children to visit it. He organizes a contest and the first 5 children who find a golden ticket will be selected to have a guided visit through the whole factory, by the mysterious owner of it.  

In the end, readers will know that the boy who ends up uninjured during the visit will inherit the factory. However, it seems to me that Mr. Wonka planned every single visit to the sections of the factory for one of his visitors fell into each trap.

Here you have the winners of the 5 golden tickets, I want you to describe them in the commentary session of this blog as well as the other characters of the story.

1. Augustus Gloop: a gluttonous boy.

2. Veruca Salt, a girl spoiled by her parents

3. Violet Beauregarde, a girl who chews gum all day.

4. Mike Teavee, a boy who does nothing but watch television

5. Charlie Bucket, the good boy who behaved kind of well and finally inherited the factory and went to live with the whole family in it.

Other important characters in the story are:

·                    Mr. Willy Wonka, the mysterious owner of the chocolate factory.

·                    The Bucket family, Charlie’s parents. Mrs. Bucket and Mr. Bucket.

·                    Mrs. Bucket´s parents, grampa George and gramma Georgina

·                    Mr. Bucket’s parents, grampa Joe and gramma Josephine.

·                    Augustus’s parents. Mr. and Mrs. Gloop.

·                    Veruca’s parents, Mr. and Mrs.  Salt.

·                    Violet’s parents. Mr. and Mrs. Beauregarde.

·                    Mike’s parents. Mr. and Mrs. Teavee.

·                    People in the town.

·                    Mr. Wonka’s workers.

·                    The Spies, the secret workers.

·                    The Indian prince.

·                    Los Oompa-Loompas.

One of the teachings of history is that children are the result of parental upbringing, here, each family is drawn with similar behaviors and even their physical appearances are the result of their excesses. Anyway, I want you to read the story or at least look at the following audiobook and let me know your own opinion in the commentary session as well:

·                    Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZGgT-XcDz8

Once you have read the work to check your reading comprehension take the following quizzes:

1.     https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/quizshow.php?title=charlie--chocolate-factory_1&q=1

 

2.     https://www.rif.org/sites/default/files/images/2022/06/14/Support_Materials/CharlieMultipleChoice.pdf

 

3.     http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory/multiple.html#gsc.tab=0

 

I also want you to answer the following questions and remember to analyze the story's characters that I mentioned before.

1.                  What type of text is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

2.                  Who wrote it?

3.                  In which period was it written? What are the most relevant aspects of this period?

4.                  What characteristics of this period can you identify in the story?

5.                  What is the context and plot of the story?

6.                  What is the story about?

7.                  Who are the characters? Who do you love or like? Who are the antagonists of the story?

8.                  Talk about the literary theory, which is involved in it, the time of the story, its context, scenery, stylistic procedures, figures of speech, literary figures, axiological values, artistic and extra-artistic purposes, and other aspects you consider important to talk about. 

 

References

Roald Dahl. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964). Distribuidora y Editora Richmond S.A. 2015.  

Roald Dahl. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (n.d). Retrieved January 6th, 2022 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory

Roald Dahl, (n.d). Romeo and Juliet. [Imagen]. From: https://personajeshistoricos.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Roald-Dahl-0.jpg

 

 

 


[1] Roald Dahl from: https://personajeshistoricos.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Roald-Dahl-0.jpg

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