The Chocolate Touch

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1952

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-10

Chapters 11-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary

John’s parents are upset about John’s condition. When John comforts his mother and kisses her cheek, he’s horrified when she turns to chocolate. John runs out of the house and back to the corner where he found the chocolate shop. Rather than an empty lot, the store is there, and the window display—instead of the chocolate that was there before—is now items that John turned to chocolate: a pencil, a coin, his trumpet, and a lunch tray with utensils and food.

John finds the storekeeper polishing a small round disk. Confronting him, John demands that the storekeeper help turn his mother back and blames him for everything that happened. The storekeeper insists on honesty and asks that John admit he’s responsible for turning things to chocolate. John understands that his greed led to his mother being turned to chocolate and offers anything in exchange for getting his mother back. The man gives John another chance, explaining how everything he turned to chocolate will be turned back. John runs home, and the man returns to polishing his disk, which must be completely smooth and “ready for a new set of initials in case the need for them should arise” (120).

Chapter 12 Summary

John is overjoyed to find his mother back to normal. She pours him a glass of milk, and John drinks it, savoring it because it tastes “of nothing but fresh, clean milk” (125). John remembers that he didn’t thank the storekeeper and runs back to do so. The store is gone again, and the sign on the lot now says “sold.”

Chapters 11-12 Analysis

In Chapter 11, the book’s action reaches its climax. John finally learns to consider others’ emotions, but in doing so, he unintentionally uses his ability to turn his mother to chocolate. This type of transformation doesn’t appear in the original version of the King Midas tale but does appear in a version penned by Nathaniel Hawthorn in 1852: Midas turns his daughter to gold, which mirrors John turning his mother to chocolate here. For John—and for Midas in Hawthorn’s version of the story—the loss of someone dear is the event that makes the protagonist realize that he must be less greedy.

The disk the storekeeper polishes is the coin from Chapter 2. The storekeeper is based on Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, who granted King Midas the ability to turn anything to gold. The items in the store window show that the storekeeper has a supernatural level of knowledge about John’s chocolate touch. The coin may be given different initials for another child who needs to learn a lesson. Although the story doesn’t state it, the storekeeper in this fable might sell any item (not necessarily chocolate) needed to teach someone a lesson about The Dangers of Excess (another of the story’s main themes), Personal Choice and Responsibility, and The Effects of Greed and Selfishness on Others. The store’s disappearance and the “sold” sign on the lot imply that the storekeeper’s work is done for this particular lesson and that the store won’t return in that location.