Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Vice and Virtue
Parenting
Poverty and Wealth
Fun, Absurdity, and Wonder
Prejudice and Bigotry
Summary
Analysis
Mr. Wonka cries that Augustus can’t touch the chocolate—it can’t be contaminated by human hands. Mrs. Gloop calls for Augustus to leave the river alone again, but Augustus doesn’t listen. He says that the chocolate is terrific and asks for a bucket. His parents and Mr. Wonka continue to yell at him, but Augustus only listens to “the call of his enormous stomach.” Mrs. Gloop shouts that Augustus is going to give his cold to all of England, while Mr. Gloop warns Augustus that he's leaning too far out.
Through this passage, Augustus shows that he’s greedy and selfish. He doesn’t listen to his parents or Mr. Wonka—and to make things even worse, he’s sick with a cold, so he’s contaminated the factory’s chocolate. In short, he prioritizes his own desires over Mr. Wonka’s wishes, and over the health of everyone else who eats Wonka chocolates.
Themes
Suddenly, Augustus falls into the chocolate river with a shriek and disappears. Mrs. Gloop screams for someone to save her son, while Mr. Gloop insists that he’s not going into the river—he’s wearing his best suit. As Augustus and his parents scream, Augustus drifts closer to the massive pipes and is sucked up into one of them. Everyone on the bank watches in awe as Augustus shoots up the clear glass pipe. Mr. Gloop remarks that he didn’t think the pipe would be big enough for his enormous son, and Charlie notes that it isn’t: Augustus is stuck.
Mr. Gloop is clearly more interested in preserving the cleanliness of his best suit—something that signals his wealth and status—than he is in saving his son. This moment is meant to be darkly humorous, but it nevertheless suggests that wealth doesn’t guarantee a happy or loyal family unit. Then, the fact that Augustus doesn’t fit into the pipe drives home just how overweight he is—and the fact that he gets stuck in the pipe due to his own greed implies that his weight is tied to his vice. In this way, the novel frames being overweight as a kind of moral failing.
Themes
The pressure builds behind Augustus until finally, it’s too much. The pressure of the chocolate dislodges Augustus, and he shoots through the pipe and into the ceiling. Mr. Wonka tells Mr. Gloop and Mrs. Gloop to stay calm and assures them that Augustus will come out the other side just fine. The pipe leads to a room that makes strawberry-flavored chocolate-coated fudge. Mrs. Gloop accuses Mr. Wonka of being a monster, since he’s laughing at Augustus’s plight. Mr. Wonka giggles that he’d never let Augustus be made into fudge; the fudge would taste terrible.
Mr. Wonka seems glib about Augustus being swept away in the chocolate pipe, which makes his earlier assertion that he didn’t want to lose anyone on the tour more sinister. It seems as though he may have expected a child to meet some grisly fate in the chocolate room. Then, it’s worth noting that Mr. Wonka doesn’t seem to care about Augustus’s health or well-being—he only cares about his fudge. It’s unclear why: it could be because Augustus is greedy, or Mr. Wonka may be prejudiced against overweight people.
Themes
Mrs. Gloop tells Mr. Wonka to take her to Augustus straight away. Mr. Wonka snaps his fingers three times, and an Oompa-Loompa appears beside him. Mr. Wonka asks the tiny man to take the Gloops to find Augustus, and the Oompa-Loompa bursts into laughter. Mr. Wonka scolds the Oompa-Loompa and then tells him to hurry: they don’t want Augustus to end up in the fudge boiler, since the resulting fudge would be inedible. When Mrs. Gloop shrieks, Mr. Wonka insists that he’s joking and sends the Gloops on their way.
Again, it’s impossible to tell whether Mr. Wonka is joking or not—but either way, he proposes here that his fudge is far more important than Augustus’s health and well-being. When the Oompa-Loompa laughs at Augustus’s plight, it essentially gives the reader permission to do the same. The novel treats the Oompa-Loompas as its moral compass, showing readers what’s right and wrong, and what’s acceptable to find funny.
Themes
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Five Oompa-Loompas on the other side of the river start to beat drums and chant “Augustus Gloop!” They sing a song about Augustus, a “great big greedy nincompoop.” They sing that normally, they’d turn him into a fun toy. But Augustus is so greedy and foul that their only option was to send him up the pipe. There are “funny things” happening now.
Here, the Oompa-Loompas suggest that they’re responsible for Augustus’s fate—they say that their only option was to send him up the pipe. This suggests that this tour is possibly a way for the Oompa-Loompas to teach naughty children lessons when they succumb to their vices.
Themes
The Oompa-Loompas warn the other children that Augustus will be fine, though he’ll be changed by the time he’s done going through the fudge machine. It’s going to slice at him and boil away the greed. By the end, where a nasty boy once stood, there will only be a delightful piece of fudge. Mr. Wonka assures his group that the Oompa-Loompas’ song is just nonsense. Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that it must just be a joke—he hopes it is, at least.
The fact that Augustus may come out of this debacle as something delightful—fudge—suggests again that the Oompa-Loompas are here to teach the children a lesson. Grandpa Joe and Charlie can’t conceive of something so horrible happening to a child, but it’s hard to tell whether readers should believe the Oompa-Loompas or Mr. Wonka.
Themes
