1. What makes Charlie's relationship to his grandparents so special? How is Charlie's behavior towards his grandparents different from that of the other children towards their parents? Why? How does the narrator make the grandparents sympathetic in the reader's eyes?

2. Discuss the role of language in the presentation of two contrasting child and adult characters in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In what ways is language a tool of violence against nature, not "representing nature" but distorting it, or converting it into symbol? In what ways is language a vehicle for harmonious social relations?

3. Is Charlie a lovable character? Is Charlie a friend of the reader? How or how not? Is Willy Wonka a lovable character? How or how not? What makes them suitable for each other?

 4. How is Willy Wonka's authority different from that of other adult figures in Charlie? Where does this authority come from? How does Charlie share in this authority?

5. Discuss the role of various visually oriented media (television, newspapers, advertising posters, etc.) in the presentation of the "desired object", whether it be food or identity.

 6. What affinities exist between the character "Charlie" and the "implied reader" of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? How would you define your position as reader in relation to that of either the "implied reader" or Charlie? What affinities exist between the character "Willie" and the "narrator" of the story? What does it mean for Charlie to take charge of the factory?

7. Pain, physical and emotional, may have played a larger role in Dahl's personal experience than one might expect of the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What place does the experience of pain have in this novel?

 8. In Masterworks of Children's Literature, (1986) Dahl's work is assigned the following curious qualification: "Unfortunately, this sort of wild hopping about from fancy to absurdity is characteristic of Dahl's fiction for children; it is a tribute to his considerable understanding of things children find exciting that his books are even coherent." (183) Discuss the "wild hopping about" and what is "even coherent" in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

9. Consider the political implications of the chocolate factory and of the various points of view it invites or entails. To what extent does the factory represent a utopian vision? To what extent a utopian vision gone awry? To what extent a harmless anachronism, reflecting an outdated view of capitalism? How do individual characters, and especially Mike Teevee and Willy Wonka, help shape both our fascination and our revulsion at the workings of this factory?

10. A place that manufactures sweets may also be a place that creates appetites. But appetites for what? Is the chocolate factory about salivation or salvation? Desserts or deservings? Filling up or fulfillment? Play or work? What does the fact of ownership add to these meanings?

11. What is The Chocolate Factory for?  Consider its objectives and functions, and the degree to which these are aligned or in conflict with each other.

12.  Consider the role of "enabling" behavior and its interpretation as "help" in child/adult relations portrayed in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. How might one identify the beneficiaries and assess the net benefits of this help?

13. Consider two figures from traditional tales that bear similarities to the figure of Willie Wonka. How are these figures treated in traditional tales? Why?

14. If Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is read as a novel of class struggle, what does it have to say about the ruling class? What might be the markers of success for someone growing up in that environment as a member of that class? What about markers of success for someone not in that class? Which class do the Oompah-Loompahs speak for?

An "implied reader" is an imaginary construct of a reader evoked in a narration. Here's a recent example from A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Hostile Hospital, (New York: HarperCollins, 2001) by Lemony Snicket.

There are two reasons why a writer would end a sentence with the word "stop" written entirely in capital letters STOP. The first is if the writer were writing a telegram, which is a coded message sent through an electrical wire STOP. In a telegram, the word "stop" in all capital letters is the code for the end of a sentence STOP. But there is another reason why a writer would end a sentence with "stop" written entirely in capital letters and that is to warn readers that the book they are reading is so utterly wretched that if they have begun reading it, the best thing to do would be to stop STOP. This particular book, for instance, describes an especially unhappy time in the dreadful lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, and if you have any sense at all you will shut this book immediately, drag it up a tall mountain, and throw it off the very top STOP. There is no earthly reason why you should read even one more word about the misfortune, treachery, and woe that are in store for the three Baudelaire children, any more than you should run into the street and throw yourself under the wheels of a bus STOP. This "stop"-ended sentence is your very last chance to pretend the "STOP" warning is a stop sign, and to stop the flood of despair that awaits you in this book, the heart-stopping horror that begins in the very next sentence, by obeying the "STOP" and stopping STOP. (pp. 1-2)