36 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy MassThe Candymakers
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Coming-of-Age as Individuals Versus Family Expectations
The Candymakers is a coming-of-age story that demonstrates the difficult choices that define maturity. Logan is 12 years old, and he feels trapped between childhood and adulthood. His room and drawings still reveal signs of youthful fantasy, but his goals reflect an eye towards adulthood. He thinks that his father wants him to follow in his candy-making footsteps, but he isn’t sure that’s what he wants. He wants to be mature and make his father proud by winning the contest, but his youthful longings cause him to daydream about climbing the sapodilla trees for a living. As a young boy, he frequently lacks the confidence that he can bring his dreams of candy making to fruition. Philip and Daisy have a similar experience, with Phillip trying to appeal to his father’s financial sensibilities rather than his own musical tastes and Daisy wanting to be a successful spy like her parents. Each character tries to follow in their parents’ footsteps because they believe it’s how they will earn their parents’ respect. However, by the end of the contest, Logan, Daisy, and Philip realize that true maturity isn’t about following their parents’ paths just to make them happy; it’s about exploring their own passions and remaining true to themselves.
The marker of maturity for each of the contestants is the ability to empathize and commit a selfless act. When each contestant begins the contest, they have selfish reasons for desiring to win. Logan wants to make his parents proud and prove that he has what it to takes to be a great candymaker; Daisy wants to steal the secret ingredient to fulfill the mission that her grandmother gave her; Miles wants to win for the girl he believes drowned, while Philip wants to win to enact revenge on Logan. These selfish motives quickly change when the four contestants become friends and decide to work together to save the candy factory. They each lay down their own motives for the better good of Life Is Sweet. This collective unselfish act is the greatest sign of maturity and demonstrates each character’s biggest personal change.
Personal Growth Through Friendship
Each of the four contestants undergoes significant personal growth throughout the course of the candy contest. These moments of growth are only made possible by the friendships that each contestant forms with each other. Each contestant enters the contest with a secret. Logan secretly feels like he’ll never be a real candymaker because he doubts his abilities. Daisy is secretly a spy who longs for genuine connections with other kids her own age. Miles secretly feels responsible for a girl’s death, while Philip secretly wants to pursue music but is afraid his father won’t accept him if he does. The secrets that each contestant carries into the contest makes them feel isolated from each other.
What starts as a competition quickly transforms into a bonding opportunity. Once the contestants join together to prevent the candy factory from being sabotaged, they view each other as friends. These friendships make each contestant feel safe enough to share their personal secrets. Logan admits that he never thinks about his accident, but he realizes that everyone else thinks about it when they look at him. After this realization, he feels empowered to embrace his scars without letting others define him by them. Daisy admits that she’s a spy, and she stands up to her parents and confesses that she wants to live a regular life. Miles realizes that Daisy is the girl who he thought drowned, and this revelation allows him to grow past his irrational fears. Once Philip admits that he loves the violin, he becomes a more empathetic character because he doesn’t feel trapped by the weight of his secret.
Candy as the Great Neutralizer
Each of the four contestants who arrive at the Life Is Sweet factory to compete in the contest come from various backgrounds. They each carry their own burdens and secrets, but these differences dissolve once they are in the factory. The worries and stresses of life dissipate as each contestant discovers the pure joy of making candy. The process of making candy enables each contestant to be children again without worrying about the burdens and familial responsibilities they face on the outside of the factory. This process is hardest for Philip. He continually tries to resist the joyful effects of the candy, and he won’t even let himself taste it. However, by the end, he transforms from bitter to content as he allows the sweetening effects of the candy to take hold of him.
While making candy, each contestant embraces secret sources of happiness that they’ve kept hidden away. Daisy allows herself to feel like an ordinary kid with genuine friends instead of just a spy on a mission. Philip more fully embraces the violin and plays in public for the first time. Miles and Logan find joy and mutual understanding in their deepening friendship. While the contest provided the fertile ground for these roots of joy to take hold, it’s the candy that refocuses each contestant on the simple sweetness of life.
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By Wendy Mass
