This section of the site sets up visual comparisons between passages of Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Surprisingly enough, Veblen's turn of the century analysis of the office of the developing leisure class can be applied to Warner Brothers' 1971 children's movie, based on the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Veblen describes the leisure class as a retarding force, preventing social growth and the rise of the lower classes. Conspicuous consumption, the ostentatious enjoyment of expensive goods by members of the leisure class, leads to pecuniary emulation, the attempt on the part of the lower classes to follow suit. This cycle retards social growth because the lower class' attempt to emulate the upper classes only results in the widening of the gap between the two. Four out of the five children invited to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory particpate in the cycle, and therefore represent the retardation of social progress that Veblen attributes to the leisure class. Charlie Bucket, however, represents the diamond in the rough, the rare member of the lower class whose integrity prevents him from falling prey to the Veblen's cycle. By giving back the gobstopper at the end of the film, Charlie ultimately rejects the cycle of conspicuous consumption and pecuniary emulation and so rises from the lower class to create a more socially adaptive wealthy class. Click on a section of the gobstopper to see how Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory can be viewed as a case study of Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class.