Charlie and the Cholate Factory | Structuralist Criticism

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

By Roald Dahl

Hello everybody! Nice to see you again. For today, we have a structuralist criticism for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, published in 1964. 

If you have not read the story and you cannot find the book, I recommend you to watch the movie. In the movie (in which the protagonist is Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka) you will have a general idea about the story. The difference between the movie and the book is that the movie is focused on Willy Wonka, and the book is focused on Charlie, a poor little boy (the original story is based on that).

The story has two sides. First of all, we have the focal point of the story. Charlie and his family. Charlie is a little boy, who lives a small house with all his family. “All his family” means that he lives with his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Bucket, and his four grandparents. Yes, they all (seven people) live in the same small house. Besides that, they are poor, the only one who works is Mr. Bucket. He works in a toothpaste company and he does not earn a lot of money to provide a good life conditions for everyone. Charlie, is a nice and normal boy. He always hungry. He loves chocolate and likes to study. On the other hand, we have Willy Wonka. Wonka is the owner of an “ENORMOUS CHOCOLATE FACTORY!”. Which is located in Charlie’s neighborhood.

From my personal point of view, the story projects a real life situation. Charlie reflects the life of many little poor kids. He likes chocolate and he desires to eat chocolate. The sad reality is that he just receives chocolate on his birthday (He eats the chocolate in tiny pieces, to make it last for a month). On the other hand, the chocolate factory is reopening, and Wonka is giving the opportunity to five children to visit the factory if they find a golden ticket in the chocolate bars. 

Of course, to find a golden ticket, Charlie needs money. But, Charlie has something more important than the order four kids. Charlie knows how hard life is. He has faith and hope trying to find the golden ticket. That’s why, with those simple and essentials things, he found the last golden ticket to visit the factory with his grandpa Joe. At the end, Charlie won the enormous chocolate factory of Willy Wonka. The story teaches us a lesson, if you have a dream, go and fight for it. As you see, Charlie does not have enough money, but he has something more important than money. It depends mostly on your attitude towards your dream. Keep positive, and working hard for that. At the end you will have the best reward of your life, and it will be the opportunity to achieve your dreams.

Guys, I want to know what is your opinion about this story. I also have a question for you:

Do you have any dream that you would like to achieve?

Attached a link to a website with a detailed summary about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

See you later!

- Bell Solís