Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Chapter 28 : Only Charlie Left | Summary

Summary

"How many children are there left now?" asks Mr. Wonka. He pretends to be surprised when Grandpa Joe tells him Charlie is the only one. Then he bursts out excitedly, "That means you've won!" He pumps Charlie's hand furiously, exclaiming over and over how delighted he is. But now, he adds, they must really hurry. "Just think of the arrangements that have to be made!"

He tells Charlie and Grandpa Joe to jump in the elevator. Then he presses the "UP AND OUT" button, and the elevator shoots straight up ... and up ... until it finally crashes through the factory roof and rises into the sky like a rocket.

Mr. Wonka presses a button that stops the elevator in mid-air. As he's explaining that the elevator runs on "one million candy power," he breaks off. He's seen the other four children, who are on their way home.

Analysis

As always Dahl is good at stretching out tension. Here, he tells Charlie he's won but doesn't tell him what he's won. At the beginning of the book, the reader can be fairly sure Charlie will end up winning a Golden Ticket. But in this chapter there's not a hint of the wonderful news to come.

It somehow seems typical of Mr. Wonka to invent an elevator that can fly but not to build an easy way it can exit a building. Dahl knows that children revel in smashing things, and he obliges them by having the glass elevator destroy the roof of the chocolate factory.