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Chapter 28
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 says that they have to go check on the other children. He presses a button, and the elevator hovers above the factory gates. Mr. Wonka points out the huge trucks that will follow each child home, full of candy. He points out Augustus Gloop—who is now “thin as a straw.” Violet is back to her normal size, but she’s still purple. Veruca, Mr. Salt, and Mrs. Salt are all covered in garbage, while Mike Teavee is 10 feet tall and also thin. Charlie says that’s dreadful, but Mr. Wonka says Mike is lucky—basketball teams will want to hire him. As the elevator climbs into the sky again, Mr. Wonka says that he and Charlie have other important things to discuss.
Aside from the garbage stuck to the Salts, the only thing that’s noticeably changed about any of the kids is their size. Augustus is now thin, Violet is back to her normal size, and Mike is very skinny. This again exposes the novel’s underlying prejudice against overweight people: the implication here is that all of the children are now better off than they were before they entered the factory. It’s unclear if they’ve learned the lessons Mr. Wonka intended to teach them—but they’re now thin, which is portrayed as a virtue in and of itself.
Themes
