Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Chapter 1
I was "inspired" to reread the children's classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" today, when @HerNameIsBuffy voiced a thought I've had many times about Grandpa Joe. I posted the photo of the cover I am most familiar with, which is the 1970's cover. Apparently I too was poor as a child and read mostly used, hand-me-down books. Fine with me! Less wasted paper in the world, I suppose.
Chapter 1: Here Comes Charlie
We are immediately introduced to our main characters by having drawings of them along with their names and relationships. Grandpa Jo is married to Grandma Josephine. They are very old and the parents of Mr. Bucket. Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina are the parents of Mrs. Bucket. Mr and Mrs Bucket do not have first names. They have a child named Charlie. All six adults and the one "small boy" live in a wooden house that is too small for them. The able bodied adults and their child sleep in one room on mattresses on the floor. The grandparents all share one bed. I feel uncomfortable thinking about what it must smell like.
This family is poor.
The only person with a job is Mr. Bucket, who works in a toothpaste factory before they designed a machines to screw the lids on to the tops of toothpaste. Seriously. He screws the lids onto toothpaste.
They eat boiled cabbage and potatoes, which does not make me feel better about the smell coming from this old wooden house stuffed full of old bed-bound people. Once a year, Charlie receives a chocolate bar for his birthday. He savors it, which I LOVED as a kid.
One other notable thing to learn in this chapter. Charlie lives in a town with a huge chocolate factory. Charlie wants to go in and see what it's like, but for now he is content with just smelling the chocolate scented air. If I lived in a house full of boiled cabbage and grandparents, I too would walk as slow as possible past the old chocolate factory.
- 13
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