Summary
The four grandparents hail Charlie with birthday greetings
as he enters their room the next morning. He carries his birthday
present, a Wonka whipple-scrumptious fudgemallow delight bar. Everyone leans
in as Charlie caresses the packaging. Mrs. Bucket reminds Charlie
not to be too disappointed if the golden ticket is not inside: he
cannot expect to be that lucky. Everyone else supports Mrs. Bucket’s
conclusion. After all, there are only four tickets left. Grandpa
Joe tells Charlie just to enjoy his birthday present. Though all
the adults want to spare Charlie from disappointment, they also know
that there is a small chance that the ticket will be inside. Grandpa
Joe encourages Charlie to unwrap the chocolate bar so that he will
not be late for school. Charlie begins to unwrap it slowly, then
all of a sudden he tears away the wrapper and discovers that there
is no golden ticket. Grandpa Joe chimes in that the bar was just
what they all expected. Charlie smiles sadly and tries to offer
some of his present to his family. Everyone staunchly refuses, even
after Charlie tries again. Then he leaves for school.
That evening the third and fourth golden tickets finders
are in the newspaper. Holding the newspaper close to his face (his
eyes are bad and he cannot afford glasses), Mr. Bucket reads the
account of Miss Violet Beauregarde’s discovery. Standing on a chair
in the middle of her living room, surrounded by reporters and flashing
cameras, Violet Beauregarde explains her find while furiously chomping
on a piece of gum. She says that she is a gum chewer by trade who
took a short break to find a golden ticket. She is almost never
without a piece of gum in her mouth, except briefly at mealtimes
when she takes it out and sticks it behind her ear for safekeeping.
Though her mother finds her gum chewing unladylike, Violet does
not care, and she criticizes her mother for yelling at her all day.
Mrs. Beauregarde tries to defend herself, but Violet quickly reclaims
the spotlight. She explains the piece of gum currently in her mouth
represents a new record, surpassing her best friend’s old one: three
months of nonstop chewing. She sticks it to the bedpost at night
and begins chewing it first thing in the morning. Violet further
explains that before she started chewing for the world record she
used to change her piece of gum daily, sticking it on a button in
the elevator in order to give an unsuspecting passenger a nasty
surprise. She finishes by explaining that she is excited to go to
Mr. Wonka’s factory and even more excited to get a lifetime supply
of gum.
After the grandmothers announce their disgust over Violet,
Mr. Bucket goes on to read about the Teavee household. Though surrounded
by reporters and the accompanying hoopla, Mike Teavee, the fourth
ticket holder, sits in front of a huge television, watching a violent
show. He is annoyed by the reporters and yells at them to stop interrupting
his television watching. He wears eighteen toy pistols strapped
to his chest and jumps up and down, shooting them intermittently.
The only thing he tells the reporters is how much he loves television.
He watches all shows, even ones that do not have violence, but he
loves gangster shows the most. He wants to star in one of them.
Again the grandmothers weigh in on how awful the child in the paper
sounds. Grandpa George reminds everyone that only one ticket remains,
and his wife declares that a beastly child will end up with it.
Analysis
Dahl continues to differentiate between children and adults,
in these chapters through their different approaches to the future.
The adults—Charlie’s parents and grandparents—do not want Charlie to
be disappointed if he does not find the golden ticket in his birthday
present. Each of them reminds Charlie that he has almost no chance
of finding the ticket. But Charlie does not say anything in response.
His silence is indicative of the fact that he is not preparing for
disappointment: he remains optimistic against all odds. He approaches
the search with a cautious optimism
In these chapters, Dahl continues to establish Grandpa
Joe as Charlie’s best friend and as a model adult. One way he achieves
this is through separating Grandpa Joe from the other adults in
their desire to help Charlie avoid disappointment. Instead of reminding Charlie
that he has virtually no chance to find the ticket, Grandpa Joe
encourages him to enjoy his chocolate. Grandpa Joe is not interested
in helping Charlie avoid disappointment by sacrificing excitement.
He believes Charlie should be excited. At the same time, Grandpa
Joe is there to soften the blow when Charlie is disappointed. In
assigning Grandpa Joe childlike characteristics, Dahl reinforces
the importance of childhood and points out that most adults are
too far removed from childhood to benefit from it. Since childhood
is so clearly an important thing, associating Grandpa Joe with it
is a positive association.
Dahl continues to moralize about the other children and
their parents. He depicts Violet Beauregarde as an idiot, but he
shifts the blame from Violet to her parents when he shows Violet
haranguing her mother. Mrs. Beauregarde is an ineffectual parent,
so much of the blame for Violet’s behavior falls on her. The same
can be said of the Teavees. Dahl depicts Mike as a television zombie.
Mike does not want to talk to reporters and is upset at them for
disturbing his television watching. He yells at them to be quiet
and his parents do nothing to correct his behavior; in fact, they
are barely even mentioned. In effect, the television serves as Mike’s
parents. Though Violet’s excessive gum chewing and Mike’s obsession
with television are vices, their parents are the real culprits.
