Summary
Chapter 6: Invitation to the White House
Inside the Space Hotel lobby, a voice announces that the President will speak to them. Everyone is excited, but then they are shocked when the President greets them as if they were from Mars and Venus. Wonka motions them not to say anything and laughs silently. The President invites them to the White House and says he awaits their reply. He clicks off.
Charlie excitedly dances around with Grandpa Joe while Wonka tries to control his laughter. He suggests that they explore the Hotel now that it is clear people are afraid of them. From the bed, Grandma Josephine insists they go to the White House, but Wonka explains that they cannot reveal who they really are. Charlie wonders if they ought to say something, and Wonka agrees that they should.
Wonka wanders around for a moment, deep in thought. Finally he speaks in a deep and devilish voice, loudly delivering a creepy poem. The President turns white and thinks they are going to attack.
Before Mr. Wonka can utter another verse, Grandma Josephine screams in horror. Everyone turns to look and they see her pointing at an elevator. One of the doors is sliding open, and a thick, brown, slimy something with large eyes is squatting in the elevator.
Chapter 7: Something Nasty in the Elevators
The group is shocked and now silent, their mouths agape. What they see appears like an enormous brown egg, slimy and wet with two massive eyes with red pupils. Its stare is cold and malevolent as it looks to all of the humans before them. There are no other features besides eyes. Its body begins to move toward them.
Charlie notices that the next elevator is on its way down too--then another and another. Finally, there are five of these creatures before them. They are slightly different sizes and shapes.
For thirty seconds, nothing happens. Charlie is paralyzed by fear. One of them begins to change its shape into a sinuous, snaky S. The others all follow and eventually spell out the word “SCRAM.”
Wonka screams to move, and all of them run as fast as they can out of the lobby and into the elevator. Wonka presses buttons and the door snaps shut. The Elevator floats back into the air.
Chapter 8: The Vermicious Knids
Wonka begins gasping in terror at the creatures and makes the Elevator move as fast away as possible. Charlie asks what they are, and Wonka is incredulous that he doesn’t know; they are, after all, the worst and “most brutal, vindictive, venomous, murderous beasts in the entire universe!” (54). They are the Vermicious Knids (K-nids) and they have no bones: they are one big muscle and can twist into any shape. Wonka is rueful that there actually were aliens on board, but it was not themselves. He explains that Knids are the terror of the Universe and destroy everything they can find. They have tried to come to Earth, but they are not heatproof and cannot make it through the atmosphere. Shooting stars are actually the Vermicious Knids.
Grandpa Georgina calls this all rubbish. Charlie asks why the Kinds did not eat them right away, and Wonka says it is because they are showoffs.
Suddenly, Grandma Josephine screams and hysterically points to a thick, massive Knid sailing alongside them, one red eye trained on them. Everyone is horrified, but Wonka presses six booster rockets. The Knid continues easily, but Wonka says the elevator can keep them out.
Wonka’s certainty collapses when the Knid sails away, comes back at them aiming its pointed rear end, and hits the Elevator with a tremendous thud. The glass shudders but it holds. The Knid begins to bruise. Wonka devises a song about the Knid who looks ill and hurt that sees a doctor who pricks him but cannot fix his rear-end.
Chapter 9: Gobbled Up
On this day factories and schools and offices are closed. Everyone is glued to their TV sets and the tension is unbearable. They hear the President’s invitation and Grandma Josephine’s screams and the aliens rushing back into the Elevator.
The President wonders aloud to his advisers if the men from Mars have accepted his invitation; they assure him they have. He asks for a song from Nanny. She complies and sings of a not-so-bright child whose parents realize he could be a politician.
The President claps gleefully. He calls for the Chief Cook to prepare food for the Martians. The Chief Cook suggests Mars Bars.
Shuckworth phones in and asks for permission to link up the Commuter Capsule to the Space Hotel. The President grants it, but is annoyed that the video camera was broken and they cannot see anymore.
A few minutes later, Shuckworth reports that everyone is now onboard. Shuckworth knows the whole world is listening and delights in reporting how grand it all is. Walter Wall, the Chief Hotel Manager, comes on to brag of how lovely it is.
Suddenly, all that can be heard are ghastly screams and yells. No one knows what is happening. The President plugs his ears. There are horrible sounds of grunting, crunching, and snorting, followed by silence.
Houston cannot get contact, but finally Shuckworth comes on. He frantically says he made it back to the Commuter Capsule along with the other two astronauts and some of the people, but they lost a couple dozen and were lucky to get out alive. The President yells that he does not understand what gobbled them up, but Shuckworth has no time to explain because he yells that “they” are swarming out of the Hotel.
Chapter 10: Commuter Capsule in Trouble--Knid Attack Number One
Wonka is trying to get away from the Knid and does not seem too worried. They make it back around to the Space Hotel, where they discover the Commuter Capsule and many more Knids. The old ones yell out in fear, but Wonka reminds them the Elevator is Knid-proof.
The Knids continue to pour out of the Hotel to attack the Capsule. It is a fearsome sight, and Charlie cries that they must help them.
Down on Earth, no one knows what is happening. Shuckworth begs for help, but the President can do nothing. The radio cuts out. The President is sweating, furious, and distressed.
Charlie muses to Wonka that their best bet is to make a reentry and dive quickly, but Wonka says it will be hard because they have to kick themselves out of orbit, change course, and head down--but their rocket tubes are messed up. Charlie asks why they can’t tow them, and Wonka jumps up in delight. He says they can do this and the Elevator is ready for anything.
Analysis
This set of chapters follows Charlie, Wonka, and the family as they deal with the fearsome Knids. Initially, Wonka’s histrionic commentary about the Knids seems odd; because some of his answers to the family are unclear or confusing, it is possible that Wonka is lying or exaggerating. Nevertheless, the Knids do appear to be as threatening as Wonka said they were, and the Elevator has to both escape from them and save those in the Commuter Capsule.
Dahl’s light tone--and the fact that he places the deaths of some of the Space Hotel employees off-screen--helps conceal the fact that there is real danger here for the characters; however, it is the sort of danger that children can handle because it is very unreal. For adults, the idea of being in outer space and attacked by monstrous aliens is a horrifying one (albeit an unlikely one), but for children, this is a gleeful and exciting adventure. Critic Barbara Basbanes Richter writes of danger in children’s literature: “There is a place and a precedent for danger and darkness in children’s literature. Young readers practically demand it…Sometimes there’s little assurance of a rosy outcome, but by reading about perilous situations in faraway places children can work through the challenges in their own lives.”
Charlie is faced with the question or whether to help the Commuter Capsule or leave it behind as the Elevator escapes, and he makes the moral choice of helping. He also has to remain calm during danger, and it is thus his idea of towing the Capsule that prevails. Richter writes, “the experience of childhood is experimental, and sometimes dangerous. Children are constantly learning new rules for new situations” and “the experience of childhood is full of anxiety, and fanciful stories that address those fears are essential tools needed by children to navigate the complexities of their world.”
Unrelated to the concept of danger, the brief glimpse at the luxuriousness of the Space Hotel is a fascinating commentary on Cold War capitalism. First, space was indeed the next frontier for powerful nations during this era, as satellites, dogs, and people were being launched into space in order to demonstrate a nation’s power and supremacy in the skies. The United States building a Space Hotel isn’t absurd as it sounds; it is just a slight stretch of the truth. Furthermore, the fact that it is a fancy Hotel, a place for leisure and decadence, is also telling: the United States really did try to fight the Cold War with material goods, showing off its high, comfortable standard of living and miracles of manufacturing to the rest of the world.
