Point of View

The story is told in third person but is not omniscient. The reader does not know anything that is not revealed by the characters. Very rarely does the reader get glimpses inside the characters' minds. One example that stands out happens in the Chocolate Room. Wonka has just given the old ones the bottle of Wonka-Vite. Once they started fighting over the pills, Wonka wanders off. Dahl lets us in on his thoughts a bit. He cannot stand to watch people fight. It is a rare moment of quiet introspection that the reader is invited to, because usually Wonka is a riddle. He rarely shows his hand.

Language and Meaning

Roald Dahl is a curator of strange words. There are a lot of unusual words mixed into the book. And if there is not a specific word that exists, the author makes one up. The...