Chocolat

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses xenophobia and harmful prejudices toward itinerant communities, fatphobia, and domestic violence.

Vianne is the protagonist of Chocolat. Hers is the primary voice of the two between which Harris alternates for the first-person narrative. Her point of view opens and closes the book. Vianne’s origins are ambiguous due to the itinerant lifestyle of her and her mother. She struggles to find her own agency over her mother’s way of life. Her love of food and chocolate, of which her mother disapproved, empowers her in this struggle. It is unique to her, not inherited from her mother, and it allows her to put down roots in the village. The chocolaterie gives her an income and purpose and helps her form relationships. However, Vianne’s chocolaterie also honors her mother’s spiritualism and uses the skills and ideas that her mother taught her; she sees making and gifting chocolate as forms of magic.

Vianne’s love of chocolate embodies a key element of her character: her love of sensory pleasures. She decorates her shop beautifully, dresses in bright clothing, and enjoys the feeling of the wind.