Charlie and the Chocolate Factory functions as a kind of fable that warns against rudeness, greed, and gluttony. However, rather than taking place in a fairy tale world, Roald Dahl chooses to give his fable the somewhat realistic setting of a factory. At Wonka’s Factory, poor behaviors common to children are punished in humorous ways. Dahl relies on gruesome, somewhat uncomfortable punishments in many of his stories to support moral lessons on how children should behave. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory features greedy and gluttonous antagonists who receive their comeuppance—but in ways that imply self-improvement is possible.

Dahl’s moral message contrasts with the world outside of Wonka’s Factory, where Augustus Gloop is encouraged to gorge himself; according to Augustus’s mother, “he eats so many candy bars a day that it was almost impossible for him not to find one [of the Golden Tickets]” (22). A parade was held in Augustus’s honor, and children were given a day off from school. It is implied that Augustus is celebrated, rather than held accountable, for his gluttony. But at the factory, Augustus is sucked into a river pipe when he ignores Mr.