Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1) in Never too Late to Read Classics

Apr 18, 2019 Josh Caporale rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It's about TIME that I have come across a character in literature that hates cereal as much as I do (and is passionate about most other kinds of food, but we will get back to that...)!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a story that I was always very familiar with, my chief source being the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film from 1971 with Gene Wilder in the title role. I was also around when the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005 film with Johnny Depp was released. Still, I never r It's about TIME that I have come across a character in literature that hates cereal as much as I do (and is passionate about most other kinds of food, but we will get back to that...)!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a story that I was always very familiar with, my chief source being the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film from 1971 with Gene Wilder in the title role. I was also around when the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005 film with Johnny Depp was released. Still, I never read the book and am glad that I had the opportunity to do so. Roald Dahl did not like the 1971 film adaptation of his book and I am pretty sure that he would not have been pleased with the changes and added plot in the 2005 film... plus the fact that one actor played all of the Oompa Loompas. I could not help but refer to the 1971 film when I was looking to get images in my head about the appearance of different characters, for I personally enjoyed the adaptation and the illustrations in this text were very subpar. It was the story that won me over!

Charlie Bucket lives with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, and all four grandparents, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine on his father's side and Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina on his mother's side. His grandparents take up all ends of the bed and spent the last twenty years restricted to their bed, while Charlie and his parents sleep in another room. Their diet is heavily restricted to the point that it has left Charlie famished and his dad is the only source of income for the family. He begins as a worker in a toothpaste factory, but is eventually laid off when the factory closes and is stuck shoveling snow.

Meanwhile, after being a successful producer of chocolate and candy, and going under due to competitors, Willy Wonka has made his way back to producing even better chocolate and candy and sends out five golden tickets in which their recipients will have the ability to tour the factory and then leave with a lifetime supply of chocolate. The four lucky recipients are a wide array of characters, including Augustus Gloop, who is a gluttonous boy that loves to eat, but especially chocolate, Veruca Salt, a spoiled brat that takes a tantrum when she does not get what she wants and eventually gets what she wants when her parents keep caving in, Violet Beauregard, a girl that loves to chew gum and has chewed the same piece for three months, and Mike Teavee, a boy that is obsessed with watching television, especially westerns, and dresses in western attire and carries several pistols. The fifth and final recipient is Charlie himself, who has to rely on timing, assistance, and good fortune to get as many Wonka chocolate bars as he was able. The tour of the factory is like none other, filled with extraordinary edible items that one could only imagine and lessons that are conveyed like a classic fairy tale.

I personally felt that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a brilliant and engaging novel. Charlie Bucket was such a modest central character that you cannot help but root for, knowing that this is a story aimed toward younger readers and meant to be simplistic. There were particular details that were simplified for that very reason and not given the kind of depth that films have given them, but at the same time there was a great deal of description regarding the characters and the setting. Unlike the film, both parents accompanied the other children, while Grandpa Joe was Charlie's only accomplice. Like many of Roald Dahl's pieces, this is a very dark work that relies on graphic occurrences and cautionary messages that can haunt younger readers, but if it worked for authentic fairy tales, it should work for Roald Dahl.

A lot of the messages in this piece hit home, in particular the Oompa Loompas encouraging people to read and how it is guarantees endless entertainment without turning you into a mindless zombie (or a brain cheese buffet). Mr. Wonka's commentary about cereal and how it is "made of the curly wooden shaving found in pencil sharpeners" (as per page 152 in my book) really hit home with me, for I keep telling people that cereal is merely cardboard in a box (and in some cases metal). Willy Wonka's approach to gum, though, is a bit more complicated. I really like the character of Willy Wonka as well, because he is a complexity, but he is by all means a genius!

The best part about this book is that the story is memorable and when I was reading this, it made me forget why I was reading it besides the fact that I was reading it because I enjoyed and was intrigued by the story. It was so good that it did not matter what kinds of faults it may have had and that is all I can say.

I definitely feel the need to pick up the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, but we shall see when I decide to do so.
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