Grandpa Joe character description

Charlie’s paternal grandfather. Grandpa Joe spends all his time in bed with the other three Bucket grandparents. He is extremely imaginative and fun loving. He realizes a return of his childish energy when Charlie finds the golden ticket. He thinks Mr. Wonka’s idea to send out golden tickets is a marketing stroke of genius, and he continues to think Mr. Wonka is brilliant while the other parents think he is mad. Grandpa Joe is kind and loving and also sensible. He is Charlie’s greatest friend and confidant.

Charlie Bucket character description

The protagonist of the novel. Charlie is unassuming and respectful toward everyone in his life. He is undernourished but refuses to ever take an extra portion of food because it would deprive another member of his family. He must walk by Mr. Wonka’s factory every day on his way to school and smell the tantalizing smell of chocolate as his stomach grumbles. He is almost always cold because he does not have an adequate jacket. Even though he has every reason to complain, he never does. Charlie is exactly the kind of child that Mr. Wonka wants.

Book summary

It's the story of an ordinary boy: Charlie Bucket. He was no stronger or faster than anyone else, his family was not rich, powerful or well connected but he was the luckiest boy in the entire world, he just didn't know it yet.
15 years ago, Willy Wonka opened the largest chocolate factory in the world but spies stole his recipes so he closed the factory. It didn't close forever though, and suddenly he decided to allow 5 children to visit the factory and one of them will win a special prize at the end. The children have to find one of the five golden tickets hidden beneath the ordinary wrapping paper of five ordinary Wonka bars. So, Augustus Gloop (a German chocoholic), Veruca Salt (a spoilt English brat), Violet Beauregarde (junior bubblegum champion), Mike Teavee (who hates chocolate) and Charlie Bucket (the luckiest boy in the entire world) win tickets and visit the factory.

"Accidents" happen while on the guided tour. The greedy Augustus falls in the chocolate lake and gets accidentally sucked up and taken away to the room where they make the most delicious kind of strawberry flavoured chocolate coated fudge. Violet, ignoring Wonka's advice, tries some of his three course dinner gum and swells up like a blueberry. Veruca tries to grab a squirrel and ends up falling down the garbage chute in the direction of the incinerator (which thankfully is broken so there's about three weeks worth of rotten garbage to break her fall). Mike tries to use Wonka's chocolate teleport machine and ends up shrunk to about 6 inches high.
Charlie wins the prize - it's Willy Wonka's factory (during his semi-annual haircut he found a grey hair and realised he'd have to find an heir). The only catch? Charlie would have to move the factory and never see his family again. He declines Wonka's offer. However, after Wonka is encouraged to make contact with his estranged father, he realises how important family can be, so he invites Charlie's entire family to move into the factory together.