Children through adults’ eyes: An appraisal analysis of child characterization in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its Indonesian translation

Abstrak

Children’s literature plays a vital role in shaping young reader’s understanding of moral and social values, and its translation often involves ideological and cultural adaptation. Within this context, evaluative language becomes central to how child characters are portrayed and understood across languages. This study explores how shifts in attitude, graduation, and characterization occur in the Indonesian translation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Adopting a descriptive qualitative design, the study applies Martin and White's (2005) appraisal framework to examine attitudinal and graduation shifts between the English source text and its Indonesian translation. The data consist of evaluative expressions narrated by the author and adult characters, analyzed comparatively to trace translated-induced changes. The findings reveal a consistent pattern of moderation: strong evaluative expressions in the original version are frequently downscaled, softened, or occasionally omitted in the translation. Affect and appreciation dominate in both versions, while judgment appears less frequently. Significantly, translation reduces the intensity of emotions and judgments and reshapes the characterization of child figures. Charlie Bucket’s sympathetic qualities are retained but expressed with less emotional force, while negative portrayals of Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt, and Mike Teavee are mitigated, resulting in less grotesque or villainous depictions. The effect is a less polarized representation of children, where the moral contrast between the “good child” and the “bad children” is softened. These findings suggest that translation choices significantly influence characterization and highlight the implications of evaluative moderation for child readership.