Allegory
Make no mistake, The Candy Shop War is a children’s book written for children that tells a story magical candy. Most of its target audience can—and will—read the book seeing nothing more to it than that. One nice thing about the book is that those same readers can come back a few years later armed with greater literary sophisticated and see that it can—can, mind you, not must or should—be read as much more serious and mature symbolic allegory about the drug abuse. It should be noted that this interpretation—and the evidence to support it which follows—is only one person’s subjective analysis and should not be taken as either the author’s intention or an attempt to assume authorial intention. That is an important distinction to make considering the age range of the targeted readership. With that in mind, however, there is much evidence in the book—whether intentional or not—to support such an analysis.
Mrs. White
Mrs. Belinda White is the owner of the Sweet Tooth Ice Cream and Candy Shoppe and a powerful magician who creates candy with exceptional properties. As an example of how a literary interpretation looks to what is contained in the text rather than seeking to enter the mind of the author and extricate intent, Mrs. White by her name alone carries powerful connotations linking her to the book’s symbolic subtext of candy-as-drugs. The book was published in 2007 which quite clearly proves that her link was in no way intentional on the part of the author. Since the publication, however, it would have become increasingly difficult for more sophisticated readers not to equate Mrs. White with a very famous Mr. White in a story that resonates quite strongly with Mull’s novel. The manner in which Mrs. White concocts powerful mind-altering candy and targets children in a way quite similar to drug dealers is narratively very far removed from Walter White’s narrative in Breaking Bad (which premiered in 2008). Thematically, however, they may as well be Mr. and Mrs. White. Belinda White sales techniques is perhaps the novel’s most potent symbol of an allegorical layer beneath the surface narrative.
White Fudge
Walter White presented the image of a good-natured science teacher while leading a double life as the nefarious Heisenberg who became famous for his Blue Meth. Mrs. White likewise presents an image of a child-loving candy shop owner while specializing in a product called White Fudge that Nate, the young protagonist, describes to his father as “addictive” and capable of making those who consume it “lose their focus and blinds them to what is going on around them.” White Fudge is thus rather easily implicated within an interpretation of an allegorical subtext as the central symbol of devastating potential of drug addiction.
Hansel and Gretel
The author does directly confront the issue of his book having an allegorical subtext related to drug addiction. This intent is cleverly disguised to keep the focus directly on the story at hand, however. In fact, he is so clever that he sets a foundation early on which he will return to later to move the story even further away from allegory and right into the world of fairy tales. When one of the young kids directly asks Mrs. White if her candy is drugs, she replies:
“Why, of course not. Drugs are a terrible menace! What kind of person would I be to disguise drugs as candy and give them to children...But I’m glad you’re on the lookout—there are unsavory characters in the world. This is a candy shop.”
Mrs. White’s defense will resonate much more strongly later in the story when a substitute teacher reminds his elementary school students of the story of Hansel and Gretel:
“Two children get lost in the woods and stumble upon a delicious house made of candy. Attracted by the sweets, the kids are captured by a witch, who continues feeding them treats.”
Moon Rocks
The most obvious symbol in the book for the effects of drugs is another of Mrs. White’s popular products: Moon Rocks. These translucent chunks of crystallized sugar produce an effect which one of the kids describes as feeling “like I was heading into orbit.” Or, put another way, “getting high.”
