Disruption and Chaos
The empty building that the narrator has hoped would become a sweet-shop is no longer vacant. Activity is going on inside, but it is not clear to what ends. The fact that something significant is underway—something quite out of the ordinary—is conveyed through imagery of disruption and chaos:
“…suddenly an enormous bathtub came sailing out through one of the second floor windows and crashed right on to the middle of the road! A few moments later, a while porcelain lavatory pan with the wooden seat still on it came flying out of the same window and landed with a wonderful splintering crash just beside the bathtub. This was followed by a kitchen sink and an empty canary-cage and a four-poster bed and two hot-water bottles and a rocking horse a sewing-machine and goodness know what else besides.”
Wonkaesque
By the end of the story, the narrator’s wish has come true. The building that was empty for so long and then briefly occupied by the window-washing animals has become a shop selling sweets. The imagery with which he describes the sweets therein can only be termed “Wonkaesque.”
“I can remember especially the Giant Wangdoodles from Australia, every one with a huge ripe red strawberry inside its crispy chocolate crust…and the Electric Fizzcocklers that made every hair on your head stand straight up on end…and there were Nishnobblers and Gumglotters and Blue Bubblers and Sherbet Slurpers and Tongue Rakers…and from the great Wonka factory itself…Stickjaw for talkative parents. And his Mint Jujubes that will give the boy next door green teeth for a month.”
Animal Food
The appetites of the giraffe, pelican and monkey play a significant role in how the plot plays out. The actual mechanism within the narrative takes place across almost its entirety and leads directly to the climax involving the sweet-shop, but it begins the imagery revealing the state of hunger among the trio of animals that even includes a little poem by the Pelican:
“The Pelly needs fish. The Monkey needs nuts and I am even more difficult to feed. I am a Geraneous Giraffe and…cannot eat anything except the pink and purple flowers of the tinkle-tinkle tree.”
“And I dream about walnuts! A walnut fresh from the tree is scrumptious-galumptious, so flavory-wavory, so sweet to eat that it makes me all wobbly just thinking about it!”
“Has anyone seen a stale sardine
Or a bucket of rotten cod?
I’d the lot upon the spot,
I’m such a hungry bod!”
The Hero Saves the Day
Pelly the Pelicans becomes the hero of the day when he saves the jewels of the Duchess from being stolen by a notorious burglar known as the Cobra. Interestingly, the Cobra is not actually a snake, but a human being. So is the Duke, who engages in some alliterative imagery when he reveals to his wife, the Duchess, that her precious jewels have been saved by the intervention of Pelly:
“Calm yourself, Henrietta. This clever bird, this brilliant burglar-catching creature has saved the day! The bounder’s in his beak!”
