Family Education in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Children’s personalities are tightly related with family education. Through family education, parents teach children attitudes of life, manner, values, thoughts, and so on at home. Besides, children’s behaviors and words not only present how people think of them, but also show their families’ response to the society and our understanding about life.

Lucky enough to get golden tickets, the five children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are invited to the marvelous chocolate factory owned by Mr. Wonka. The first child getting the golden ticket is Augustus Gloop. He is gluttonous on sweets. The second one is Veruca Salt. She is a spoilt girl, doing whatever she can to make her desire fulfilled. Violet Beauregarde, a championship of chewing gum, is the next one and also a rude and impolite girl. The fourth one is Mike Teavee, who indulges in TV programs and adores violence badly, wishing to live a life like that. Charlie Bucket is the last. He lives in poverty but is still full of dreams.

The five children respectively suggest greedy, willfulness, aggressiveness, violence and selfishlessness. The avaricious Augustus always wants more. He falls into the chocolate river due to his desire for more chocolate. Because of Violet’s aggressive personality, she eats the not-well-developed gum. Finally, she turns into a big blue berry ball. The willful girl Veruca falls unto the chute, which results from her anxious desire for getting one of the squirrels in the Nut Room and is attacked by them. The violent boy Mike cannot wait to get into a TV set, because he is eager to be part of TV world. At last, he turns into a very small person who can stand on his father’s hand, and at the end of the story, a very long boy. All the four kids ignore Mr. Wonka’s warnings and determine to reach their hopes. Charlie, however, has no any special hopes. Just with curiosity, admiration, and expectation, he visits the magnificent chocolate factory. His simple motivation finally makes him a heir of the chocolate factory.

Family education leaves marks on children. It affects children characters and molds their attitudes toward others and the world. That is, parents play an important role in the growing process of children. If parents dote their children over, the spoilt kids will develop some personalities that are not welcomed by others. Actually, in the story of Chocolate Factory, the four self-centered kids never know how to sympathize with others. Their selfishness leaves them to their disability of sharing love and happiness with others. They also show their bad tempers and inappropriate behaviors. Charlie, on the contrary, has an appropriate family education — Everyone shares what they own with the other family members. For instance, his two pairs of grandparents share the same bed. Everyone wants to give Charlie their share of food because this little boy is in his growth. Annually, they would save money together to buy a chocolate bar for Charlie as a birthday gift. Everyday’s story telling before bedtime is also a sharing moment to pass thoughts and dreams down to the next generation. Under the warm atmosphere, Charlie learns understanding, generosity, respect, and the joy of sharing from his family.

Family education is the main concern in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . After Veruca falls in the chute, the Oompa-Loompas sing “…Is she the only one at fault?...A girl can’t spoil herself…Who spoiled her, then?... her loving parents…” From the song, we learn that parents are responsible for what their children are. As matter of fact, parents are the subjects imitated by their children. That is, children are epitomes of their parents. Therefore, family education greatly affect every child. I think, Charlie’s family education meets Mr. Wonka’s philosophy of making chocolate: delivery joy to the world. Our society is formed by a group of people with different backgrounds, if we only grasps what we want, ignoring others’ needs, the society can never operate well. A family is a basic unit of a society. Only through appropriate family education, we can learn to cherish the people around us, share what we have, never give up hopes…and all the good qualities to make our society and world better.