Gory Greed and Horrible excess!

Greedy Patrick Star 

Previously, we looked at the connection between poverty and bad food, and so I thought it would be interesting to look at the other end of the spectrum; The idea of food in relation to greed and excess. Is it always good to have any food you desire and of any amount? When does it become excessive? What does it teach young readers about how your relationship with food should be?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Charlie Bucket (who we looked at in the previous post) is quite unlike Veruca Salt, Mike Teevee, Augustus Gloop or Violet Beauregarde. He is loved by readers because he is not greedy, excessive, spoiled or gluttonous like all the other characters that all come to a sticky end because of these bad qualities that they possess. We see this in many of Dahl’s other books: Violet Beauregarde  is transformed into a grotesque, inflated blueberry: a somewhat visual depiction of greed, James and the Giant Peach’s James has an enormously fat aunt who is physically flattened in to the ‘right shape’ by the giant peach and Bruce Bogtrotter is humiliated and forced to eat an entire chocolate cake in order to acknowledge his greedy habits. All these examples illustrate Dahl’s disapproval of greed and over indulgence; I believe that it also somewhat acts as a cautionary tale for children with greedy tendencies.

Willy Wonka's five Golden Ticket Winners.

Augustus unbelievably says at one point: “Don’t make me run, I’m full of chocolate!”

When he is in Wonka's chocolate factory he simoly cannot help himself when he comes across a pure chocolate waterfall leading in to a chocolate river. He goes against Wonka's strict request to not go near it, but of course he starts lapping at the river of chocolate but manages to fall right in!

The image of a dirty, sticky, greedy boy contaminating the pure and delicious chocolate river is an unpleasant thought and with the stark imagery of Augustus being trapped tightly in the glass pipes among
 sticky brown liquid .. suddenly the idea of a chocolate river is not so idyllic- it becomes grotesque, and there are connotations of a sewage pipe full of faeces.

Similar to the way in which a child reader can find enjoyment and fulfilment in George feeding his grandmother the medicine, we see Bruce Bogtrotter defy the expectations of adults in the way that he manages to finish the entire chocolate cake much to the surprise and anger of the terrifying Trunchbull whilst all the children look up in shock and adoration. Even when I read this book and watched the film as a child, I found myself rooting for Bruce, and willed for him to finish the whole cake, and feeling that triumph and disgusting glory as he has his last bite and belches loudly with great satisfaction at the end; not because he finished the cake but because it so greatly angered and defied the adults. Likewise in Loovius Poovius, it is a almost always a firm favourite for any child that reads it purely because its just so disgusting, with a constant mention of something a child is not usually allowed to talk about because it is considered ‘bad manners:’ poo. Thus again a child can delight in the sense of rebellion and repelling, base humour.

 

Below is a part of the Oompa Loompas'  cruelly humorous but cautionary rhyme

Augustus goes shooting up the pipe!

 about Augustus:

"This revolting boy, of course,
Was so unutterably vile,
So greedy, foul, and infantile
He left a most disgusting taste
Inside our mouths, and so in haste
We chose a thing that, come what may,
Would take the nasty taste away.
'Come on!' we cried, 'The time is ripe
To send him shooting up the pipe!

Uh oh!!

But don't, dear children, be alarmed;
Augustus Gloop will not be harmed,
Although, of course, we must admit
He will be altered quite a bit.
He'll be quite changed from what he's been,
When he goes through the fudge machine:
Slowly, the wheels go round and round,
The cogs begin to grind and pound;
A hundred knives go slice, slice, slice;
We add some sugar, cream, and spice;
We boil him for a minute more,
Until we're absolutely sure
Is boiled away for once and all.

That all the greed and all the gall....!"

Vesuvius Poovius by Kes Gray (2004)

This rhyme is a perfect example of Dahl's genius ability to effortlessly merge childish and entertaining humour along with a clear didactic element. He is also known for his clever and accurate wordplay- the name "Gloop" holds negative, disgusting and not very refined associations!
 

Another example of food portrayed negatively in terms of greed and excess can be found in the extremely base and revolting, slightly tongue in cheek humour of Kes Gray's Vesuvius Poovius (2004.) This book is about how the citizens of Ancient Rome coped before the invention of the loo.

Though this hilarious illustrated book is mostly about ‘poo’ (much to the delight of young readers- boys in particular…) there is also a scene where we observe the emperor and his wife indulging OVER indulging in a vast feast fit for a kin- well, emperor. They cannot stop!

“Munch by munch, slurp by slurp, and belch by belch, the Emperor and his wife worked their way through the tummy curdling lot.”

Readers can note how the feast is far from delicious, it is revoltingly excessive, and the food itself

does not sound particularly appetising:

“Tuck in!” he smiled. “There’s prune cocktail, sheep’s eye dumplings, eel jelly, frog burgers, beetle pizza, snail squash, crow soup and lots lots more!”

What possibly makes it worse is the author's clever use of juxtaposition: the contrast between tasty foods such as "burgers" and gruesome inedible foods such as "beetles." The imagery of the enormous heaving emperor and his wife stuffing their faces on an almost never ending supply of repellent dishes is far from tempting; on the contrary it is off putting and repulsive- they even debate on whether or not they should carry on eating after nearly falling ill from already having too much! This portrayal of greed and excess far exceeds all notions of food being tempting and delicious to the point that it becomes quite the very opposite. Pass me a sick bucket!

Below is the famous chocolate cake which Bruce Bogtrotter managed to eat all of in front of the entire school: excessively thick and chocolatey, rich and dark… I dare you to try and finish the whole thing! It is in a recipe book inspired by foods that are mentioned in some of Dahl's most famous books.

You will need: 8oz dark chocolate, 6oz butter, 8oz caster sugar, 4tbsp plain flour, 6 med eggs. For the ganache: 8oz dark chocolate, 8oz double cream

1. Preheat oven 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 and line a 20cm round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Make sure use a deep round tin.
2. Melt the chocolate in the microwave on a low heat, stirring every now and then until completely melted. 
3. Mix in the butter and stir until melted. Gradually add in the flour sugar and egg yolks.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a seperate bowl until light and fluffy. Gently fold into the mixture until combined.
5. Pour into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 35-55 mins depending on your oven. We baked ours for 35 mins and then covered with tin foil as it was a little wobbly in the middle and baked for a further 20 mins, checking every 10 mins.
6. Leave to cool in the tin for a while and then turn out onto a cake stand or plate. 
7. Put the chocolate (broken into pieces) and the double cream in a microwaveable bowl and gently heat until the chocolate melts. Stir every now and then to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn. Take out of the microwave and stir rapidly to cool the mixture and so it thickens.
8. Once it begins to thicken pour over the cake and smooth over with the back of a spoon or spatula.

These two books are just small examples of  the huge amount of famous children's book characters who delight in excess and are crippled by their greed, it is almost always portrayed negatively and reinforced as such to children who (mostly innocently and within their nature) can be greedy at times.

Gory rating :  0 out of 5 
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Comments:

IT'S CHOCOLATE CAKE GUYS!
(However, I'd rate it higher I was forced to eat the entire thing... *gulp*)