History Literature / CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator

* AnAesop: The Oompa-Loompas deliver a song about not "help[ing] yourself/To medicine from the medicine shelf" in the wake of the grandparents' de-aging themselves with too much Wonka-Vite.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: At the end, the gang is off to the White House to be hailed as heroes...

Dahl was working on a third book, ''Charlie in the White House'', but when he died, only one chapter was complete, hence the lack of real closure at the end of this one.

* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: In the backstory, the Vermicious Knids have ''tried'' to invade and conquer Earth the way they did several {{SacrificialPlanet}}s (see below) but Earth's atmosphere is too much for them -- what look to humans like shooting stars are actually Vermicious Knids burning up when they try to pass through.

* SequelGap: Eight years -- ''nine'' for U.K. readers, because this book was released in the U.S. first.

A sequel to ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' by Creator/RoaldDahl, beginning directly where the previous book left off. That ended with Charlie, having just inherited ownership of Wonka's factory, crashing through the roof of his home to pick up his family in a huge glass elevator (it can go in any direction, not just up and down). Having spent the past 20 years in bed, Charlie's grandparents (except for Grandpa Joe, who was already out) refused to get out of bed, so Wonka, Charlie, and Joe just pushed the bed into the Elevator.

* InsubstantialIngredients: Certain ingredients in Wonka-Vite are these -- "the hip (and the po and the pot) of a hippopotamous", for instance.

* TagalongKid: Charlie, being no less the PinballProtagonist he was in the previous book, doesn't get to do a whole lot in this story other than occasionally play TheWatson -- a role he shares with all the other adults that aren't Willy Wonka.

Now, Wonka flies the Elevator really high, with the intention that they will then shoot straight down through the roof of the chocolate factory. However, panicky Grandma Josephine accidentally causes them to fly into space, where they end up in orbit around the Earth. What happens up there is just the ''first'' half of this novel, because Grandma Josephine and her fellow bedmates manage to get themselves in even more trouble once everyone's back at the factory...

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: It's Grandma Josephine's panicking that causes the elevator to fly into orbit when she keeps Mr. Wonka from reaching the controls that would have stopped it from going that high.

* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: Willy Wonka, recounting the story of how he invented and perfected Wonka-Vite, lets on that he tested the prototype versions of the pill on 131 Oompa-Loompas, one at a time. It's clear that ''something'' went wrong every time until it was perfected and worked splendidly on the 132nd, but when pressed by the Buckets, he won't say what that was. After Grandma Georgina is de-aged into Minusland and he and Charlie head off to rescue her, he finally explains that the 131 Oompa-Loompas went through the same experience she did, and Mr. Wonka rescued them all by creating Vita-Wonk and journeying down to Minusland to bring them back, a terribly long and risky process and thus one he didn't want to discuss in the present.

* CartoonBugSprayer: Wonka uses one to administer the Vita-Wonk to Grandma Georgina.

* FrictionlessReentry: While the book is full of ArtisticLicense in regards to physics, this Trope is nearly inverted completely, because reentry does cause friction here. The mistake made, however, is that Wonka claims it is the reason that the Knids cannot invade Earth (saying they would burn up in the atmosphere if they tried) but they were able to invade Mars and Venus without this problem. If anything, Venus would be an even bigger problem for this reason, and they wouldn't be able to invade Mars either.

** There's a fleeting mention of a movie star named "Helen Highwater."

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: The first half of the book deals with the elevator going into space and the encounter with the Vermicious Knids. The second half deals with the effects of Wonka-Vite on the grandparents, with the events and new characters of the first half forgotten until the final chapter.
* {{Handwave}}: Wonka claims that Wonka-Vite is too valuable to waste on himself, which is why he needs an heir. That doesn't stop him from wasting a great deal on Charlie's grandparents.
** Also, Wonka explains that the elevator can fly because of "skyhooks." When someone asks what the skyhooks are ''attached'' to, he brushes off the question.
* {{Hellevator}}: The Great Glass Elevator is able to travel to a subterranean land that's effectively "hell without heat" to facilitate an OrpheanRescue.

* NeverMyFault: The bed-ridden grandparents blame Wonka for the whole mess with the Wonka-Vite, never mind that he had flat-out warned them how powerful the pills were, and proceeded to overdose on them.

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Lancelot R. Gilligrass may be the arch-typical President Buffoon.

* PhlebotinumOverdose: Happens twice: First when the three grandparents take the Wonka-Vite, and second when Wonka uses the Vita-Wonk to re-age Grandma Georgina. In the latter case, he doesn't have any choice, owing to an exact dose being tough to administer to what's essentially a ghost.
* SacrificialPlanet: The Vermicious Knids are said to have eaten the former inhabitants of Venus, Mars, and the Moon. The only reason why they haven't devoured Earth yet is because they can't survive the friction heat from plummeting through the atmosphere.

** At one point, Mr Wonka states that while in orbit, you can't just turn around and go the other way. This is actually possible; just turn your rocket 90 degrees to the direction it's currently going in, then fire the rockets and your orbit route will change accordingly.

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Grandma Georgina is the grouchiest and most vocal of the protagonists, and is never right about anything. [[TheChewToy And suffers more abuse than any of the other characters.]]

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: The Buckets, whose nationality is left undetermined in ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', are revealed to be Americans here, in the wake of the 1971 movie that cast them thus.
* WhosOnFirst: Mr Wing and Mr Wong on the phone, and explaining the carpets are wall-to-wall to Mr Walter Wall.

* NotQuiteBackToNormal: The fate of Susie Pinklesweet in the Oompa-Loompa song about not "help[ing] yourself/To medicine from the medicine shelf." Susie survived overdosing on chocolate-flavored laxatives, but because she took so many "It messed up all her chromosomes" and ever since, she's had to spend seven hours in the ladies' room every day.

* ToiletHumor: In response to the grandparents taking too much Wonka-Vite, the Oompa-Loompas perform a song telling the sad tale of a little girl who foolishly helped herself to the tastiest-looking stuff in her grandma's medicine cabinet -- which turned out to be chocolate-flavored laxatives...

** As well as the aforementioned Mr. Wing and Mr. Wong leading to the president saying that "every time you wing you get the wong number."

Now, Wonka flies the Elevator really high, with the intention that they will then shoot straight down through the roof of the chocolate factory. However, Grandma Josephine accidentally causes them to fly into space, where they end up in orbit around the Earth. What happens up there is just the ''first'' half of this novel, because Grandma Josephine and her fellow bedmates manage to get themselves in even more trouble once everyone's back at the factory...

* FrictionlessReentry: While the book is full of ArtisticLicense in regards to physics, this Trope is nearly inverted completely, because reentry does cause friction here. The mistake made, however, is that Wonka claims it is the reason that the Knids cannot invade Earth (saying they would burn up in the atmosphere if they tried) but they were able to invade Mars and Venus without this problem. If anything, Venus would be an even bigger problem for this reason, and they wouldn't be able to invade Mars either.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The President of the United States was UsefulNotes/RichardNixon at the time of this book's writing, but here he is called "Lancelot Gilligrass."

* PhlebotinumOverdose: Happens twice: First when the three grandparents take the Wonka-Vite, and second when Wonka uses the Vita-Wonk to re-age Grandma Georgina. (In the latter case, he doesn't have any choice, owing to a more exact dose being tough to administer to what's essentially a ghost.)

* MinusWorld: Minusland is an dreary example of this.