A spoiled child, Veruca Salt screams quite a bit during Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. At the start of the story, Veruca screams at her parents to get her a coveted Golden Ticket. As Veruca’s parents are rich, her dad buys half a million Wonka chocolate bars and makes his peanut factory workers unwrap them until they find his daughter a ticket.

While Veruca and the other four children are outside Willy Wonka’s factory waiting to be let in, a voice in the crowd appraises Veruca’s situation. According to the onlooker, Veruca’s father “gives her anything she wants.” He then adds, “She only has to start screaming for it and she gets it.” It seems like Veruca screams to get what she wants.

Sure enough, inside Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, Veruca's screams continue. When she spots an Oompa-Loompa, she screams so as to alert her dad that she wants an Oompa-Loompa for herself. “I’ll see you have one before the day is out,” replies her dad. When she notices the pink boat in the Chocolate River, she screams again because she wants her dad to buy her a similar boat.

Later on, Veruca and the remaining children visit the Nut Room. Reinforcing the crowd member’s thesis, Veruca screams at her parents because she wants something. This time, it's one of the squirrels in the room. Veruca’s dad tries to buy a squirrel from Wonka, but Wonka says that they’re not for sale. Infuriated, Veruca, disobeying Wonka’s instructions, enters the Nut Room. The squirrels capture the intruder and throw her down the “rubbish chute.” Now, Veruca is screaming for a different reason.