"I just thought if you had any toffee to give me I'd let you slide down my slippery-slip...I let people use it if they pay me toffee"

(The Enchanted Wood)

Enid Blyton's classic story, called The Enchanted Wood (1939), was - and still is - a firm favourite from my childhood. 

Every night, before going to bed, my sister would read me the story; the magical creatures of the wood would have me wanting to hear more and more, to the point at which it became impossible to even imagine sleeping. The characters are one aspect of the book which enticed my little mind; however there was always something else that kept me coming back to the book time and time again.....TOFFEE.

My craving for the toffee that Blyton writes of has yet to be satiated. The day I find a toffee which lives up to gum-sticking, delicious toffee in The Enchanted Wood, will be a wonderful day for my sweet tooth. 

The three children in the story are siblings, called Jo, Bessie and Fanny. One night, they venture into the woods near their home and discover a magical congregation of fairies. Through their journey up the mysterious Faraway Tree, the children encounter a "round moon-like face", who helps them get down from the tree, in exchange for a sweet treat.

It is at this moment that a reader can recognise the importance of the toffee for the three children. After admitting that they had no toffee to exchange with Moon-Face, he simply "slammed his door shut". Toffee is used as a commodity in this book, the paying of toffee to Moon-Face somewhat echoes the reward of Turkish Delight to Edmund, in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Moon-Face is not, however betraying his siblings; and in fact, at the mention of home made toffee, he "[beams]" at the children and allows them to use his slide down the Faraway Tree. What a darling. 

"Oh my!" said Moon-Face, looking with great delight into the bag. "What lovely toffee!"

 As with the other books we've looked at, sugar can't be included without a healthy dose of gluttony. 

"[Moon-Face] crammed four large pieces into his mouth and sucked with joy"

The act of stuffing one's face is generally thought of as gluttonous; and harks back to Augustus Gloop, in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, who tried to get as much chocolate into his mouth as he could.What’s more, the inclusion of this in a children’s book may add a didactic element to Dahl - and Blyton’s - writing; that is, through the use of Augustus’ greed, child readers are aware of the dangers of gluttony.

Moon-Face's joy at receiving the toffee is indicative of a child's delight when receiving a treat, however the point at which his enjoyment becomes gluttony is his inability to speak, as a result of all the toffee in his mouth. 

"Oh dear, we shan't be able to get anything out of him at all whilst he's eating toffee"

As a child reader, I always found Moon-Face's "Ooble ooble[s]" hilarious. As an adult reader, I find them frustrating. Jo, Bessie and Fanny need information about this enchanted place, however, as a result of Moon-Face's cramming, he is unable to warn them of the dangers. 

Indeed, Fanny recognises that Moon-Face failed to warn Jo of the dangers: "Your mouth was full of toffee and all you could say was 'Ooble-ooble-ooble!' And how could we know what that meant?" 

Give him his credit, however, if I was handed a bag of delicious toffee, there would be absolutely no chance of getting a conversation out of me. 

True, there must be a little bit of gluttony in all of us, and when it comes to sugary treats, I am never one to say no!  

Yes please. 

"But Augustus was deaf to everything except the call of his enormous stomach. He was now...lapping up the chocolate like a dog"

(Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

Roald Dahl's books have all transcended through the decades for their reputation as witty and ingenious for any child reader. Dahl frequently deals with issues such as poverty and greed in society; as he does in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964). 

In this book, Dahl uses the chocolate factory as a device to filter out his characters, leaving our protagonist, Charlie Bucket as a symbol of a 'perfect' and moral child. The poverty which Charlie lives in is told to readers from the beginning, yet we are also told that "[t]he one thing he longed for more than anything else was...CHOCOLATE". Immediately, the child and the child reader are lured into the luxurious and satisfying topic of chocolate.

In Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, chocolate is described as "creamy" and nutritious; it satiates Charlie's hunger, as opposed to the bland cabbage soup the Buckets have day after day. It is significant that sugar in this book is used to represent nourishment - it is full of milk and cream, both of which are filling. Chocolate is also seen as iconic to Charlie, and the reader, in how "Only once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie ever get to taste a bit of chocolate". He would "treasure it as though it were a bar of solid gold". 

Readers are later told about "Mr Wonka and the Indian Prince", a story which describes the epitome of greed and needless desire. Prince Pondicherry wanted a "colossal palace, [made] entirely out of chocolate". Not to eat, however, but to LIVE in. If that doesn't shout out greed, then I don't know what does.

"soon after this, there came a very hot day with a boiling sun, and the whole place began to melt...and the crazy prince...woke up to find himself swimming in a huge brown sticky lake of chocolate" 

In this chapter, chocolate is used as a function; that is, it is used as building blocks of a palace, instead of its normal function (providing mouth-scoffing bliss to anyone at any-time need). This is impractical and greedy, perhaps a little ironically, seeing as the prince refused to even "nibble the staircase or lick the walls". The use of the words "nibble" and "lick" are somewhat sensual and almost primal - perhaps suggesting the indulgence and luxuriousness of Wonka's chocolate. 

Dahl then turns the delicious chocolate into a "brown sticky lake", which shows the excess and revulsion of the sugary 'treat'. It is this way that the reader is manipulated into desiring the chocolate, but is then forced to recognise the problems with consumption and greed. 

Which brings us to the embodiment of greed within the novel.......

"The picture showed a nine-year-old boy who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump"

Dear Augustus Gloop; the podgy, round boy whose hobby is eating. When Augustus sets his sights on the chocolate river in the factory, there's no stopping this eating machine. The way he is described as "lapping up the chocolate like a dog" degrades Augustus to an animal. What's more, Dahl once again manipulates his readers into feeling not only guilty, but disgusted too. Who wouldn't like to drink molten chocolate from a chocolate river?! Fantasizing about this and actually doing this, are two different matters, however, and chocolate is used to seduce Augustus into the river, ultimately contaminating the chocolate and the reader's fantasies of a lovely, creamy, chocolate river. 

Thanks, Gus. 

"...this was enchanted Turkish Delight and anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it...till they killed themselves"

(The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe)

For today's post, we will be looking at C.S.Lewis' classic novel The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (1950). As a child reading his book, I often found myself craving the White Witch's sumptuous Turkish Delight. My young mind envisaging the powdery, squishy, sugary goodness piled high upon the kitchen table; I would scramble down the stairs in a rush to find anything sweet that I could grab with my chubby little sausage-fingers. 

Yet amidst the rose tinted (or flavoured, as the case may be) haze of a sugar rush, Lewis' Turkish Delight always left me feeling slightly uneasy. Through Lewis' use of language, readers are made to feel unstable within the novel - Edmund begins to trust this woman, who is described as "cold and stern", with her "eyes flaming". Why does he trust her? 

The answer is... *drum roll please*

SUGAR!

A sweet drink and Turkish Delight are used to tempt Edmund into revealing all to the White Witch. 

"The dwarf immediately took [the jewelled cup] and handed it to Edmund with a bow and a smile; not a very nice smile"

"Edmund felt much better as he began to sip the hot drink. It was something he had never tasted before, very sweet and foamy and creamy" 

Edmund is given a sweet drink to 'warm him up', however it is used as a way for the witch to lure him into her grasp. What's more, the dwarf's bitter-sweet delivery of the drink to Edmund implies that something is not quite right in Narnia. It doesn't take a detective to figure out that the dwarf and the witch are villains. 

Edmund, however, has one thing on his mind. Sugar, of course.

As if the "sweet and foamy and creamy" drink wasn't enough, he asks for MORE sweets. This time though, the witch is careful to conjure up something which will entice Edmund further - the infamous Turkish Delight.

This isn't any old Turkish Delight though. This is "enchanted Turkish Delight", used to squeeze out all the information the witch can get from Edmund about his brothers and sisters.  

Much like the witch in Hansel and Gretel, the White Witch uses sugary treats to tempt the young boy into her evil plan.

This, along with the sweet drink, is the device used by Lewis which pin points the moment at which Edmund's mind is corrupted with the treats that the witch has given him, causing him to betray his own siblings in his quest for more of the Turkish Delight. 

 

 *Dang it, Edmund!* 

 

  

"When they came closer, they saw that the little house was built entirely from bread with a roof made of cake, and the windows were made of clear sugar" 

(Hansel and Gretel)

Hansel and Gretel is a beloved fairytale, written by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm, first published in 1812. 

As most of us know, it is a story about two young siblings, Hansel and Gretel, who fall for an evil witch's plan to tempt them into her house by building a house made of sugary treats in order to lure the young children in. 

As a child, being read Hansel and Gretel was always a melancholy experience - could the food I loved (everything sugary) be used as bait for young children, by an evil witch with "red eyes" and "a sense of smell like animals"? 

Indeed, the glorious illustrations accompanying the tale always filled my mind with indulgent pastries and soft, sugary breads. But I became increasingly aware of the dangers of sugar in books: it seemed as if sweet treats were given to trap young children, tear them away from their lives of comfort and safety; and plunge them in to a world with evil witches and scary monsters.

This definitely is the case in Hansel and Gretel, however the moment of their liberation is a celebration of children against witches; a time where any child reader can be returned safely back to the comfort of the real world, where the only sugar houses existing are the gingerbread houses made at Christmas time.    

 

Sugar. It's the granular temptress which seduces everyone, from young children to old men and women, intent on indulging on that last piece of toffee - despite it slowly gluing their dentures to each other; as in Enid Blyton's story, The Enchanted Wood (which we will look at in due course). 

Sugar is in almost everything we eat, from fruit to bread, yet despite its obvious health risks (tooth decay, obesity and hyperactivity), we can't get enough of it! 

Food in literature has often been a topic of debate - what types of food is commonly used in a genre and what do they represent? 
This blog will be looking at the different types of sweets and sugary foods included in children's literature and how they are used in within the respective plots.

Above is an illustration of one of the most famous houses in children's literature - the witch's house in Hansel and Gretel. The sweets, breads and pastries adorning the house has always set my mind into a sugar-driven state of frenzy; where is this house and, perhaps more importantly, WHERE CAN I FIND IT?

Admittedly, I was a little disappointed when I finally grew up and learnt that, alas, this house was in the magical world of fairy tales. A house made of delicious sweets, pastries, breads and anything sweet known to man, is simply not real. There is hope, however, for those who allow themselves to be transported into the wonderful world of literature - books such as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the aforementioned The Enchanted Wood; including some of the most luxurious descriptions of sweet treats. 


Welcome to the world of Sweet Treats & Temptation.