Allegories created within any kind of work can provide countless depths of meaning to even the most simple-sounding tale, yet the idea of what an allegory is frequently confounded by people. Allegory transforms appearance into a full concept, rather than a smaller elemental idea.
This full concept is transformed further into an image, but this time it is done in such a way that the concept can be grasped and described as something different from the image even as it is being expressed in it (Goethe, 1991, p. 88). In this way, stories such as Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory can convey cultural definitions of the ‘good’ or the ‘bad’ child. In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the portrayal of the character Charlie Bucket is an allegorical representation of the ‘good child’ shown through his behavior before winning the golden ticket, through his behavior as compared to the other children and in his final admission of wrong and repentance at the end.
At the beginning of the story, Charlie is seen to be a very poor boy in a time when there are very few social services to ensure his basic needs are provided. He is skinny and scrawny because he has not had enough to eat in his entire life and, although he looks dreamily after other people who are eating and longing through the bars of the chocolate factory where he can smell the wonderful fragrances, he is never once heard to complain.
He doesn’t seem to have the energy to run and play, but he still manages to stop by to visit his mother at her laundry and spends time in the evening with his elderly grandparents. His respect for his elders has also given him a mature attitude toward life’s blessings and he thankfully and joyously savors each square of chocolate from his birthday chocolate bar to make it last as long into the year as he can. Although he longs to visit the chocolate factory, he realizes it is highly unlikely that he will ever get the chance and he accepts this with quiet humility.
Compared to the other children, Charlie is a saint. Augustus quickly reveals himself to be interested in almost nothing but food to the point that he is not even capable of listening to reason. His corpulence contributes to his falling into the chocolate river as well as his getting stuck in the tube, emphasizing this element of his behavior. Violet is impatient and aggressive, grabbing the imperfect gum before anyone can stop her and only finding out, too late, that the final course has disastrous consequences. Veruca, already demonstrated to be extremely spoiled and demanding, is finally rated a ‘bad egg’ as she demands yet another impossibility to satisfy her own greed.
Mike is so convinced that he is aware of all the possibilities when he is introduced to the Wonkavision that he inadvertently shrinks himself down to the size of a small doll, easily slipping into his mother’s handbag. In each case, these children illustrate selfish, unthinking behaviors with little regard for what may happen. Although Charlie, too, ends up doing something he shouldn’t by drinking some of the Fizzy Lifting Drink, he only does this after being encouraged to by Grandpa Jo who, as an elder, is someone Charlie is expected to accept direction from.
Although Charlie is the only child left at the end of the tour, having saved himself and his grandfather from the powerful fan blades at the top of the Fizzy Lifting Drink tower, he does not automatically win the grand prize of a lifetime supply of chocolate. Although this is heart-wrenching for the young boy who had dreamed of nothing else all his life, Willy Wonka’s explanation of Charlie’s theft of the drink is enough for Charlie to recognize his own actions as being equally as wrong as the actions of the others, he just didn’t have such obvious results.
While Grandpa Jo sputters on about the nerve of the man to dash a boy’s hopes in such a way, Charlie is accepting responsibility for his actions and making the decision to atone for this sin in some way. By the time Grandpa Jo gets around to mentioning the Everlasting Gobstopper, he is doing nothing more than providing Charlie with the answer to his internal question. Charlie turns around and places the gobstopper on Willy’s desk, both recompensing however much he can for the damage he’d done by returning this valuable piece of candy as well as promising Willy that, even should Willy not know of the threat, that the secret of his new candy will not reach his enemies through Charlie’s hands. It is this action, his sincere repentant and accepting faith, which wins Charlie the prize.
Throughout the story, Charlie is shown to be the perfect child. He is uncomplaining and attempts to look on the bright side of things even while suffering through the worst side of them. As a result of this, he is thankful for every good thing that comes to him and he understands himself to be part of a family team attempting to survive the best they can. He is respectful to his mother and seems to enjoy spending time with his old grandparents who can’t get out of bed.
Compared to other children, he is meek, mild-mannered, and polite. He is not greedy, bossy, impetuous, selfish, authoritative, or gluttonous. While he can break the rules, he only does so at the urging of his elders. And when he is caught for breaking the rules, he offers no excuses, no complaint, and no resistance, but merely accepts his portion and does what he can to make up for it. Thus, Charlie Bucket is the perfect allegorical figure of the ‘good child.’
Works Cited
Goethe, J.W. Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe, Munich: C.H. Beck, 1973, Vol. 12, pp. 470-71. Translated in Rainer Nagele, Theater, Theory, Speculation: Walter Benjamin and Scenes of Modernity. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Dir. Mel Brooks; Perf. Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum & Julie Dawn Cole. Warner Bros., 1971.