The Practice of Hegemony in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

Abstract

There are many children literature that contains hidden ideologies such as the ideology of race domination, the ideology of capitalism, the ideology of state competition, the ideology of gender, and many others. One example is the children novel Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. This research aims to uncover the practice of hegemony in this children novel and also explain the contextual background and the ideological construction behind it. This research uses the theory of Hegemony by Antonio Gramsci (1971), which describes how the ruling class subdues the subordinate class without physical coercion. The method used is a qualitative data collection method because the data is descriptive. The qualitative data obtained through literature review. The primary data is the narratives and dialogues taken from the novel, while the secondary data is information from the internet, articles, books, and essays. The results of this research prove that the practice of hegemony in this children novel is carried out by Willy Wonka as the ruling class towards the Oompa Loompas as the subordinate class through several stages, such as indoctrinating ideology, shaping the apparatuses, gaining the consensus, maintaining the power, and dealing with the crisis of hegemony. This hegemonic practice caused the emergence of capitalism and exploitation that led to slavery.