Book Reviews- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl

A beautiful book which is a mild satire on this world, and particularly the kind of generation that we might be bringing up. The novel brings us to don our thinking hats and analyze the role of parents and society in spoiling the kids.
The book portrays 5 main children as characters through which the author conveys his thoughts on the above. As we run through the novel, we are able to relate it to the youngsters around us who are gradually adopting certain habits and attitudes which can hardly be called ideal.
The present generation likes being pampered and and uses it as an instrument to demand anything they want, they are hooked onto TV sets -becoming couch potatoes and living in a fictionary world of their own- ignoring all around them, they are greedy and forever want to eat junk food which results in obesity, they maddeningly imitate their peers and want to do/sport anything that the peerset does resulting in unhealthy competition.
At the same time we cannot underestimate the role of the parents and the society at large in such upbringing. The novel portrays parents who would not only condone but infact go to the extent possible to fulfill the wishes of their children, to an extent that the same child starts taking things for granted and become snobbish and stubborn.
In the instances where the children find golden tickets for entry in the chocolate factory, the author has painted a very grim but perhaps true picture of mediapersons who treat these children as celebrities; for an event in which nothing more than pure luck has played a role; thus emphasizing that the qualities constituting merit have taken a backseat today. The media goes a step ahead and covers just about everything, showing indiscretion in sieving out the sensical from the non-sensical.
In short a saga of lost virtues- Generation over generation