History Literature / CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Mr. Wonka has invented, in no particular order, a hair-growing toffee that could help cancer and alopecia areata (severe hair loss) patients, a teleportation device that shrinks its test subjects, a gum that could feed starving people once he gets the recipe right, and in the sequel a FountainOfYouth pill as well as a RapidAging medicine. This gets lampshaded in the 2005 film by Mike Teavee who is astounded at Wonka's AchievementsInIgnorance.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** There's no way that Wonka would be able to operate his factory without letting anyone in or out, since that would preclude health and safety inspections. That's not even getting into [[NoOSHACompliance what said inspectors would find if they ever were to be let in]].
** Bringing a large group of people from a foreign country, having them work in your factory, and paying them entirely in cocoa beans would surely violate numerous immigration and labor laws.

** Bringing a large workforce from a foreign country and paying them in cocoa beans would surely violate numerous immigration and labor laws in many countries.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* {{Bowdlerise}} / OrwellianRetcon: The original Oompa-Loompas were black and specifically mentioned to be from DarkestAfrica. After numerous people pointed out the UnfortunateImplications of Willy Wonka as a slave owner, later printings changed them to be white and somewhat hippie-ish inhabitants of Loompaland to make the concept less overtly racist. (While the first film adaptation predated the retcon, the very different look of its Oompa-Loompas was specifically thought up to avoid the unfortunate implications of the original premise.) Additionally, regarding the latter trope, the character of Veruca Salt was originally known as Veruca Cruz.

* PlotHole: As Ron Novy notes in his essay "Willy Wonka and the Imperial Chocolate Factory" (which examines the UnfortunateImplications of the HappinessInSlavery of the Oompa-Loompas), how did Willy Wonka learn the Oompa-Loompas' language -- and thus communicate with them -- when he came to their country? (Especially in the pre-{{Bowdlerised}} version, in which he was the first white person to venture into their country!) And why did they learn English as his workers when it would have been just as easy for him to continue using their language?

* PrettyInMink: Veruca Salt wears one to the factory.

* EldritchLocation / TheWonderland: The factory -- a beautiful, wondrous, but also bizarre and dangerous place that defies physics and reality in general, and serves as a perfect reflection of its creator and his curious sense of logic.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: To the point that when the tour starts, there's 15 people in the group (the four naughty kids and their parents, Charlie and Grandpa Joe, and Willy Wonka leading the way). It quickly becomes a DwindlingParty, but still. Most adaptations -- including all four that warrant their own pages on this wiki -- trim the cast by limiting the number of adults a Golden Ticket finder can bring with them to one, resulting in four of the naughty kids' parents being either DemotedToExtra or AdaptedOut. Check out the trivia page for information about many characters who ''didn't'' make the final cut!

* StaticCharacter: ''The whole cast'', in both books.

* AlliterativeTitle: Not just with the repeated "ch" digraph but the "l" sound as well. Sadly lost in both the sequel and the 1971 adaptation, although they each have their own alliterative elements ("Great Glass" and "Willy Wonka").

* AdultFear: At the start of the book before Charlie finds the Golden Ticket, his family becomes so impoverished that they start to slowly and realistically ''starve to death.'' His parent and grandparents are particularly worried about how it's affecting Charlie.

** As the perpetrator of the mildest "sin," Violet in particular has been expanded quite a bit in all subsequent adaptations, making her more broadly disgusting and hyper-competitive in a stereotypically over-pressured "stage mother" sort of way. (This may have inspired the ContemptibleCover noted below.)

* ContemptibleCover: Penguin Books added this novel to their Modern Classics line of paperbacks in 2014 (coinciding with [[MilestoneCelebration its 50th anniversary]]). This line is targeted at adults rather than kids, but the outside-the-box thinking behind the unique cover of this edition -- [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28703254 a photo of a girl]] made up to look like an UncannyValley resident -- got Penguin in some hot water, with accusations of this trope ''and'' MisaimedMarketing of a book that isn't regarded as having the crossover appeal (and thus the need for an alternative cover) that something like ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Augustus is the least mean of the bratty kids, as he's merely gluttenous and obsessed with Wonka's chocolate without doing any truly bad things whatsoever.

* RuleOfThree

** Augustus drinking directly out of the chocolate river, which is ''hot melted chocolate'' when he has an entire field of grass and buttercups to nibble on and in the adaptations everything else in the Chocolate room. It's even worse when his mother mentions that he can't swim after he falls into the river. It's lucky that he wasn't burned ''or'' drowned.

* AdultDear: At the start of the book before Charlie finds the Golden Ticket, his family becomes so impoverished that they start to slowly and realistically ''starve to death.'' His parent and grandparents are particularly worried about how it's affecting Charlie.

* NonIndicativeName: The titular location is not a chocolate factory -- it's a ''candy'' factory (that makes many products that have no chocolate in them).

* GoneHorriblyRight

* HappinessInSlavery: The Oompa-Loompas, probably because the life they had before was ''much'' worse.