Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Chapter 15 : The Chocolate Room | Summary

Summary

An amazing sight greets the visitors when Mr. Wonka opens the door to the Chocolate Room. They're looking down at a beautiful valley with green fields, trees, blossoming shrubs, and a flowing brown river with a huge waterfall. Beneath the waterfall enormous glass pipes lead to the ceiling and carry the brown liquid away.

A brown river doesn't sound very enticing until Mr. Wonka explains the liquid is melted chocolate—enough to fill every bathtub and swimming pool in the country. The function of the waterfall is to make the chocolate light and frothy. Not just the river is delicious: everything in the room is made of candy, including the grass they're standing on.

The group is nibbling on grass and buttercups when Veruca Salt lets out a shriek of excitement. Pointing, she screams, "It's a little person! It's a little man!"

Now everyone sees the little man. And he has company. Five tiny figures are staring at the group from across the river.

These, Mr. Wonka explains, are Oompa-Loompas.

Analysis

There's not much action in this chapter, but that's hardly noticeable because Dahl's descriptions create such a sense of motion. Notice the way he moves from a panoramic view—the valley with its fields and river, and the massive pipe system behind the waterfall—to a series of close-ups on individual blades of grass and buttercups. At first the visitors are "completely bowled over by the hugeness of the whole thing."

But once they're focusing on the edible grass beneath their feet, they're able to take in more specific sights. It's then that Veruca Salt notices the Oompa-Loompas across the river. While the landscape is an astonishing edible imitation of the real thing, the Oompa-Loompas are unique. Having introduced these amazing little men, it's slightly deflating that Dahl ends the chapter on such a matter-of-fact note. "Of course they're real people," says Mr. Wonka. "They're Oompa-Loompas." Not an exclamation mark in sight!