Parenting Theme Analysis

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a mysterious chocolatier named Mr. Wonka holds a contest where five children who find Golden Tickets hidden in Wonka candy bars will win a tour of the Mr. Wonka’s factory. When newspapers run interviews with the first four children who find Golden Tickets—Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teavee—Charlie (who eventually becomes the fifth winner) and his grandparents all take issue with the children’s behavior. Charlie’s grandparents, for instance, describe the kids as “bratty,” “beastly,” and “revolting.” With this, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at first seems to suggest that the children are responsible for their own behavior, whether good or bad. But as the book progresses, it shows that this isn’t true: a child’s parents or caregivers, the novel suggests, are their biggest influences and have the power to shape a child’s behavior. Vice or virtue, in other words, aren’t innate qualities—children aren’t born being good or bad, selfless or greedy. Rather, these qualities and behaviors are learned, most often through a child’s parents.

At first, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory suggests that a child’s good or bad behavior is something innate. This becomes clear when the newspapers run interviews with the first four Golden Ticket winners, Augustus, Violet, Veruca, and Mike. For the most part, the children’s parents are notably absent from the interviews—Mike, for instance, seems entirely on his own, while Augustus’s mother makes only a cursory statement during his interview. Charlie’s grandparents all take issue with the children’s behavior, which seems, for the most part, to exist in a vacuum. For that matter, the novel gives little indication at first that Charlie’s good behavior is learned rather than innate. In the novel’s introduction of the major characters, Charlie is simply described as the “hero,” while the other four children are described in terms of their vices and misbehavior. Just as the other children’s misbehavior seems to come out of nowhere, so does Charlie’s goodness.

However, as the novel progresses, it shows that children’s behavior is largely influenced from the outside: a parent’s passivity or lack of discipline significantly affects their child’s behavior. Mr. and Mrs. Gloop, for instance, see little wrong with Augustus’s greed and desire to gorge himself on sweets all the time. By never stepping in to stop Augustus and limit his sweets, they inadvertently teach him that his greed is acceptable, which is what leads him to break the rules at the Wonka factory by eating from the chocolate river. In this way, their passive parenting style teaches their child bad habits. The song that the Oompa-Loompas sing after Mike Teavee is transformed into an inch-tall version of himself (after being transported through a magic television) offers another perspective on this dynamic. They suggest that for busy, stressed-out parents, a television can act as a kind of babysitter, keeping a child engaged and out of trouble. But according to the Oompa-Loompas, this comes at a cost: parents who sit their children in front of televisions all day essentially give up the opportunity to teach their children desirable behavior and values. A child like Mike, the novel implies, is the expected result of this kind of absent parenting. Influenced by his favorite violent television shows, Mike is rude, selfish, and interested only in emulating what he sees on TV (his last name, Teavee, is a tongue-in-cheek nod to this).

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also shows that children often mimic their parents’ own poor behavior. The Salt family offers the clearest example of this. Veruca is selfish and entitled, and she gets whatever she wants—but through Mr. Salt’s behavior, the novel shows that Veruca learned her entitlement from her father. For instance, Mr. Salt shows how powerful he is when he procures a Golden Ticket for Veruca by forcing the employees who shell peanuts in his factory to unwrap candy bars until they find a ticket. This also shows that he believes people should do whatever he tells them to do. This is why Mr. Salt is aghast when Mr. Wonka won’t sell him a trained squirrel for Veruca during the factory tour; he expects others to give him what he wants, no questions asked. Seeing how Mr. Salt behaves, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Veruca is as entitled and selfish as she is—he’s shown her that her entitlement is acceptable and will help her get what she wants.

Overwhelmingly, the novel suggests that parents should set examples for their children of how they’d like them to act and take responsibility for their children’s misbehavior. The Bucket family provides a model for how the book suggests parenting should work. Charlie’s parents may seem hands-off at first—but this, the novel suggests, is because they’ve already done the hard work of leading by example. For instance, it’s possible to see that Charlie learned to be generous from his mother, Mrs. Bucket, who has always shared her meals with Charlie when the family doesn’t have much to eat. Moreover, Charlie’s grandparents are all repulsed by Veruca, Violet, Augustus, and Mike’s behavior—and in their understanding, it’s those children’s parents who should discipline their misbehaving children. Though the grandparents’ insistence that the bad children could benefit from being spanked may seem outdated to modern readers, it nevertheless suggests that parents can—and should—step in to modify their children’s behavior when leading by example doesn’t work. Part of this, the novel suggests, means accepting that children aren’t born good or bad—they learn certain behaviors based on what they see at home. This is why, after Mr. Wonka’s trained squirrels throw Veruca, Mr. Salt, and Mrs. Salt down the garbage chute, the Oompa-Loompas’ song insists that “a girl can’t spoil herself, you know”—thereby implicating Mr. and Mrs. Salt for Veruca’s rudeness and entitlement. With this, the book insists that parents are responsible for their children’s behavior. While one might assume that children are in control of their actions, in reality, parents often emulate or encourage poor behavior—whether intentionally or not.