On Easter morning, I left the shower to find an Easter Egg from See’s Candy in the bedroom.
After I dressed, I spotted another on the couch. As we were visiting my mother’s
church to spend the day with her, and had a long drive ahead of us, my wife
suggested I grab a book. So I picked up a book I’ve been wanting to read for some time
now: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Then I noticed a third Easter Egg beside my
computer.
In Dahl’s novel, Charlie lives in a
ramshackle house. His father doesn’t
earn much at the toothpaste factory, and with his meager pay, he supports his
parents, his wife, her parents, and Charlie.
The diet for all seven consists of bread and margarine for breakfast,
boiled potatoes and cabbage for lunch, and cabbage soup for dinner. On Sundays this routine changes, when the family
gets a second helping. That’s assuming
that no unexpected expenses occur, which require them to skip a
few meals.
Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory is located nearby, which means that with
every breath, Charlie inhales the mouthwatering aroma of chocolate. When he sees other children eating
chocolate, he can only
turn away. Once each year he receives a Wonka candy bar, and, “on those marvelous birthday mornings, he would
place it carefully in a small wooden box that he owned, and treasure it as
though it were a bar of solid gold.” For
the first few days, Charlie would only allow himself to stare at it. Then, “when he could stand it no longer, he
would peel back a tiny bit of the paper wrapping at one corner to expose a tiny
bit of chocolate, and then he would take a tiny nibble, just enough to allow the
lovely sweet taste to spread out slowly over his tongue.” Through his strict rationing, Charlie makes
his chocolate bar last a month or more.
While my wife drove, I read some of the book to her, and
shared with her the occasional illustration. But I lacked Charlie’s
self-control, and before the day was out, I had
devoured Dahl's novel. I loved the flow of his
prose, his descriptions, inventiveness, and wit. His
characters leap off the page, over-the-top and yet reminiscent of people in the real world. I haven’t read the story in over three
decades, and I’ve never seen the movie adaptations. I never owned the novel, but checked it out of
my elementary school library. And yet,
as I read, memories resurfaced, preparing me for what
would occur in the next chapter. Or on
the next page!
They say that you retain less than one percent of your long-term memory. One percent doesn’t
seem like much. But I’ve reread books
after far shorter intervals, and not remembered half of what I remembered of Charlie. That suggests that Roald Dahl knew how to
structure his plots so that they resonated with me, that he shaped his characters
with care, and that he painted his scenes with just the right details to allow the mind
to retain them. His attention to detail made my second reading less a fond look back on a forgotten
homeland, and more a reunion with a once-close friend.
The next afternoon, I opened up one of my presents, and gazed
down at the See’s Easter Egg. Then, when
I could stand it no longer, I cut off a small piece, placed it on a dessert plate,
and sat down on the couch. (Yes, I also shared a piece with my wife). I picked up
the small piece of chocolate, took a tiny nibble, and allowed the chocolate buttercream to tantalize my taste buds. I might have devoured Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, but I want these Easter Eggs to last!
Perhaps there are more than purely literary reasons why I
remember this particular Roald Dahl novel.
Dragon Dave
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