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Golden Tickets
The way that different characters consume or think of chocolate correlates to their wealth and privilege. For instance, Charlie Bucket and his family are extremely poor, so the only chocolate Charlie ever gets is a single candy bar every year on his birthday. This on its own drives home how poor Charlie’s family is, if a 10-cent chocolate bar is a once-per-year luxury item. Furthermore, the narrator notes that Charlie makes his candy bar last a whole month by nibbling only a tiny bit of it every day. Charlie nevertheless longs to live a more economically secure life in which he can afford to eat chocolate more often—this is why he stops every day on his walk to and from school to sniff the chocolatey smells coming from Mr. Wonka’s chocolate factory. The way that Charlie craves and savors chocolate highlights his poverty and his desire for a better life—one where a luxury like chocolate isn’t so rare.
Augustus Gloop, on the other hand, reveals how wealthy and privileged he is through the way he greedily consumes chocolate. He eats dozens of candy bars every day—and according to Mrs. Gloop, his mother, this is because Augustus needs the vitamins in chocolate. However, readers are meant to infer that Augustus eats so much chocolate simply because he wants to, and because his privileged circumstances allow him to. Unlike for Charlie, chocolate isn’t a luxury for Augustus—it’s an everyday staple food. In Augustus’s case, then, his gluttonous relationship to chocolate represents his easy, indulgent lifestyle.
At the end of the novel, Charlie learns that Mr. Wonka is going to bequeath the factory to him, a moment that crystallizes Charlie’s ascension into a higher economic class. Living at the factory, Charlie is never going to want for chocolate again, which more broadly represents the newfound comfort and security that his life as an heir will afford him.
Chocolate Quotes in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory quotes below all refer to the symbol of Chocolate. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
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Charlie felt it worst of all. And although his father and mother often went without their own share of lunch or supper so that they could give it to him, it still wasn’t nearly enough for a growing boy. He desperately wanted something more filling and satisfying than cabbage and cabbage soup. The one thing he longed for more than anything else was…CHOCOLATE.
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Chapter 5
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“Wouldn’t it be something, Charlie, to open a bar of candy and see a Golden Ticket glistening inside!”
“It certainly would, Grandpa. But there isn’t a hope,” Charlie said sadly. “I only get one bar a year.”
“You never know darling,” said Grandma Georgina. “It’s your birthday next week. You have as much chance as anybody else.”
“I’m afraid that simply isn’t true,” said Grandpa George. “The kids who are going to find the Golden Tickets are the ones who can afford to buy candy bars every day. Our Charlie only gets one a year. There isn’t a hope.”
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Chapter 15
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“Don’t you think they look pretty? I told you I hated ugliness! And of course they are all eatable! All made of something different and delicious! And do you like my meadows? Do you like my grass and my buttercups? The grass you are standing on, my dear little ones, is made of a new kind of soft, minty sugar that I’ve just invented! I call it swudge! Try a blade! Please do! It’s delectable!”
Automatically, everybody bent down and picked one blade of grass—everybody, that is, except Augustus Gloop, who took a big handful.
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Chapter 16
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Augustus Gloop, as you might have guessed, had quietly sneaked down to the edge of the river, and he was now kneeling on the riverbank, scooping hot melted chocolate into his mouth as fast as he could.
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Chapter 17
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“Save him!” screamed Mrs. Gloop, going white in the face, and waving her umbrella about. “He’ll drown! He can’t swim a yard! Save him! Save him!”
“Good heavens, woman,” said Mr. Gloop, “I’m not diving in there! I’ve got my best suit on!”
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Chapter 18
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Charlie was holding tightly onto his grandfather’s bony old hand. He was in a whirl of excitement. Everything that he had seen so far—the great chocolate river, the waterfall, the huge sucking pipes, the candy meadows, the Oompa-Loompas, the beautiful pink boat, and most of all, Mr. Willy Wonka himself—had been so astonishing that he began to wonder whether there were could possibly be any more astonishments left. Where were they going now? What were they going to see? And what in the world was going to happen in the next room?
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Chapter 27
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They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink—
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK—HE ONLY SEES!
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Get the entire Charlie and the Chocolate Factory LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chocolate Symbol Timeline in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The timeline below shows where the symbol Chocolate appears in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...but it’s not enough for a growing boy like Charlie. What he really wants is chocolate. Every morning as Charlie walks to school, he passes shops with slabs of chocolate stacked...
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Charlie gets chocolate once per year, on his birthday. His parents and grandparents save their money to buy...
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But what makes life even worse for Charlie is that he not only sees chocolate all the time in shop windows—from his house, he can see a massive chocolate factory....
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Chapter 2
One night, Charlie asks his grandparents if it’s true that Mr. Wonka’s chocolate factory is the biggest in the world, and if Mr. Wonka is the cleverest chocolate...
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Chapter 3
...Pondicherry asked Mr. Wonka to come to India and build a huge palace out of chocolate. Mr. Wonka did just that: the palace had 100 rooms and was made entirely of...
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Chapter 4
...was locked and chained. People were confused, since the factory was definitely working and making chocolate. Grandpa Joe leans close to Charlie and says that the most mysterious thing was that...
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...that the factory has been running like this for the last 10 years, and the chocolates and candies it’s produced are better than they used to be. Furthermore, no one copies...
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Chapter 10
Charlie still passes Mr. Wonka’s chocolate factory on his way to school every day. He always lifts his head to sniff...
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Chapter 11
...Charlie immediately rips it open. He shoves huge bites in his mouth, savoring the rich chocolate. The shopkeeper tells Charlie to be careful he doesn’t get a stomachache as he gives...
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Chapter 14
...space for everything above ground. After more turns, Mr. Wonka stops in front of the chocolate room.
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Chapter 15
Mr. Wonka points to the river and explains that it’s all chocolate—enough to fill every bathtub and swimming pool in the country. The pipes carry the chocolate...
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Chapter 16
...Wonka says, was cacao beans—but those were hard to find. Cacao beans, incidentally, are what chocolate is made out of. So once Mr. Wonka discovered that the Oompa-Loompas loved cacao, he...
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...day. Then, Mrs. Gloop shouts for Augustus to stop—unsurprisingly, he’s kneeling at the riverbank, scooping chocolate into his mouth.
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Chapter 17
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...
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Suddenly, Augustus falls into the chocolate river with a shriek and disappears. Mrs. Gloop screams for someone to save her son,...
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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...
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Chapter 18
...going next. Suddenly, Mr. Wonka appears next to Charlie. He uses mugs to scoop up chocolate from the river and offers them to Charlie and Grandpa Joe, asking if they haven’t...
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Chapter 25
...asks if there’s a television room, and Mr. Wonka points to a button labeled Television Chocolate. Mike whoops and presses the button.
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Chapter 26
Mr. Wonka hops with excitement and says that this is where he tests his Television Chocolate. He explains that he doesn’t like television much, but kids love to stare at TVs...
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...TV work, he wondered whether he could do the same thing with a bar of chocolate—it could emerge in the TV, ready to eat. Mike says this is impossible, but Mr....
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Chapter 30
...able to tell the family about their day—and that they’re going to live in a chocolate factory. Grandma Josephine, Grandma Georgina, and Grandpa George refuse to go, so Mr. Wonka, Grandpa...
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