The Chocolate Touch

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1952

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

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

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Personal Choice and Responsibility

Although outside influences may affect the decisions we make, our choices are ultimately up to us alone. No one can force us to make a choice. Through John’s character arc, Susan’s waffling emotions, and the storekeeper’s perspective, The Chocolate Touch explores how we’re each responsible for our own choices.

John’s chocolate ability brings him hardships, such as being unable to finish his math test or play his trumpet solo. In Chapter 9, he’s frustrated with everything that happened at school, and he blames his teachers and classmates, “even though nothing that had happened to him had been their fault in any way” (93). At this point in the story, John isn’t yet ready to admit his flaws where chocolate is concerned, and blaming others for his misfortune is easier for him. At the end of the book, he realizes that his greed and selfishness led him to purchase the chocolate that started his ability. All his strife links back to that single event, which means he’s ultimately responsible for everything that happened. If he hadn’t bought the chocolate, his pencil wouldn’t have turned to chocolate, and he could have finished the test. Similarly, his trumpet wouldn’t have turned to chocolate, and he probably would have played his solo perfectly.

Susan’s conflicting emotions show how choices can be difficult and we can’t rely on anyone else to make them for us. When John unintentionally eats half her coin, Susan chooses to get upset about it. The coin is important to her, and she blames John for destroying it. Later, Susan makes the choice to forgive, perhaps because she doesn’t feel that staying angry is worth losing the friendship. Given how she treats John on the playground, this choice is likely difficult for her. She faces an equally difficult decision at the end of the story, which may be easier when she finds that her dress wasn’t ruined. John didn’t mean to ruin Susan’s things, which Susan probably understands, but that understanding doesn’t make her choices easier.

The storekeeper is not only a catalyst for John’s growth but symbolizes the importance of taking responsibility. In Chapter 11, John blames him for everything that happened, but the storekeeper refuses to take the blame. He sold the chocolate that caused John’s ability, but John’s selfish and greedy love of chocolate made John decide to buy the chocolate. The storekeeper only offered the choices and couldn’t force John to make the one he did. Once John understands that he’s responsible for his chocolate ability, his character arc is complete, and his life goes back to normal.

Choices can be difficult to make, and no one can make them for us. Choices may not be “wrong” or “right,” but every choice has consequences we must deal with. Taking responsibility for our decisions allows us to find ways to overcome their negative outcomes, while pushing aside responsibility keeps us trapped in anger, unable to find solutions.

The Effects of Greed and Selfishness on Others

Greed and selfishness seem like emotions that affect only the person experiencing them. In reality, these emotions can impact others and cause us to hurt those people, intentionally or otherwise. Through John’s obsession with chocolate, Susan’s reaction to John’s ability, and Dr. Cranium’s personality, The Chocolate Touch shows how selfishness and greed can harm those around us.

At the beginning of the story, John’s father asks him to consider how his chocolate obsession affects his mother. John doesn’t understand how his obsession affects anyone else and pushes the question aside. Throughout the book, John sees how his ability has a negative impact on others—from destroying things that are important to Susan to ruining orchestra rehearsal. In Chapter 11, John turns his mother to chocolate, which affects her entire being and life. No harm comes to her in the end, but if John had chosen chocolate over her, she would have stayed chocolate forever and, in effect, died due to John’s selfishness. Instead, when John realized what he did, “he forgot about himself altogether” (112), which is the ultimate show of selflessness, rather than selfishness, and represents how caring about others puts selfishness in perspective.

Susan is also selfish at points throughout the book. The destruction of her coin and dress are upsetting, and Susan has a right to react to those things. However, despite John’s apologies and attempts to explain, she never considers what he might be going through. Her anger causes her to be selfish and think only about what’s important to her. Had she listened to John earlier, they could have worked together and perhaps found a solution to their problems before more things were ruined. Susan’s selfishness kept her from wanting to work with John, which may have hurt them both.

Dr. Cranium displays selfish behavior too. In both scenes where he appears, he focuses less on helping John and more on all the ways that his medical knowledge is useful, even though no proof exists that his tonics or diagnoses do any good. When Dr. Cranium realizes John’s ability, the doctor thinks only of advancing his own placement in the medical community, rather than helping John find a cure for his affliction. While Dr. Cranium’s actions don’t harm anyone, his actions could be harmful to patients because those actions stem from selfishly caring more about his standing than about his patients.

If not addressed, selfish and greedy behaviors can hurt us and those around us. Realizing when we’re being selfish or greedy is the first step to reducing the harm we might cause. The characters of The Chocolate Touch experience greed and selfishness about different things, but the source of these emotions doesn’t matter. The outcome is the same.

The Dangers of Excess

Variety is said to be the “spice of life,” but it’s also a necessary tool for maintaining a healthy body and mind. Having too much of something or relying entirely on a single way of being can lead to negative or stagnant outcomes. Through John’s chocolate ability, his diet prior to gaining his ability, and the one-dimensional nature of many of the book’s characters, The Chocolate touch shows how too much of any one thing isn’t good for us.

The first few times John turns something to chocolate, he enjoys it. He normally dislikes brushing his teeth because toothpaste tastes nasty, but when it turns to chocolate, it’s so delicious that he eats the entire tube. John’s breakfast all turns to chocolate, and he eats more at that meal than he’s ever eaten because it’s entirely chocolate. By the time lunch comes around, though, John is starting to feel sick from eating nothing but chocolate. He never realized how important water or other food was until he couldn’t get the sweet chocolate taste out of his mouth. Had the curse not been broken, John’s teeth would likely have deteriorated from the chocolate toothpaste, and his overall health would have declined because “different parts of your body need different kinds of food” (18) that they weren’t getting.

Even before the curse, John wasn’t the healthiest child. He disliked eating anything but candy because other foods didn’t taste as good or sweet to him. He took a tonic prescribed by Dr. Cranium in order to get nutrients he could have gotten through his diet if he didn’t eat only candy. Eating too much candy hadn’t caused John any noticeable problems yet, but if he’d continued eating candy that way, even without his chocolate ability, health problems would have eventually followed.

In general, the supporting characters of The Chocolate Touch are one-dimensional. Miss Plimsole is a teacher. John’s parents appear only in that role, and Dr. Cranium is little more than a stereotypical doctor. This is partly to emphasize what’s important in the story. The supporting characters are mainly vehicles through which the consequences of John’s ability are shown. As a result, Miss Plimsole disregards John’s chocolate pencil because it doesn’t fit in her teaching job description. John’s parents ignore John’s talk of his ability, figuring it’s just more of his candy obsession. Dr. Cranium prescribes medicines and makes diagnoses as he feels they’re needed, and he doesn’t consider that anything other than a medical condition could be causing John’s ability. The enduring, unchanging view with which these characters observe the world keeps them from seeing what’s going on with John, and when they do realize what’s happening, they can’t look outside their views to notice how strange the situation is or offer useful assistance.

Whether it’s food, mindset, or something else, too much of anything is unhealthy. Eating only chocolate (or any other food) results in an unbalanced diet, which could have consequences down the road. Similarly, being stuck in sameness or refusing to consider new viewpoints keeps us from growing and changing. As the only character who experiences change (both in his eating habits and personality), John shows the importance of finding our own path when those around us stagnate.