Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a young child I was drawn to the fantastic world of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory by all the normal reasons, but also by the fact
that I was skinny and toe-headed with an excess of hair, much like the child-hero Charlie. The synoptic aspect of this piece is a verse-to-scene comparison between the movie and the story of The Fall in the Book of Genesis.
After seeing the movie at State Theatre in Detroit and drinking after at the now long gone Elwood bar I began to see the movie in this way. The movie has stayed
with me my whole life. I am watching it for the umpteenth time as I write this. “Pure Imagination” played in the place of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” in our
wedding. (See the Seussian aspect of that wedding.)

Now, I feel this approach is unique, so I want to differentiate from comparisons to the children the Cardinal Sins. Of course, the four "naughty little children" are not numerous enough to
represent the Seven Deadly Sins, unlike the population of Gilligan’s Island . "Greedy boy" Augustus Gloop shows gluttony. Spoiled Veruca Salt shows all the signs of greed
unleashed. Violet “Can it, you nit!” Beauregarde, who cuts off her parents during her interview when she gets the ticket, is quick to anger. "A boy who does nothing but watch television" named Mike Teavee is surely slothful. (Their
parent may be even more sinful.) As a matter of fact, they are all a bundle of all the Deadly Sins, save the sin reserved for adults: lust; unless you count their lust for Wonka’s holdings.

Everyone sees Charlie as angelic and sin-less in this regard, but I feel he bears the sin of pride. Mrs. Bucket tries to counter this haughtiness: “And after this contest is over, you'll be no different from the billions of others who didn't find one.” Only to have Charlie retort, “But I am different.  I want it more than any of them.” Mrs. Bucket tries to sing down this pride in “Cheer Up, Charlie.”

However, there may be more to the sins- Gilligan’s Island connection and even the Dark Side of the Moon-Wizard of Oz connection than my Paradise revisited angle. But, I enjoy ruminating on this aspect of interpretation, anyway. I say “revisited”, because I think this best works as Eden re-opened for a second chance to a new set of humans to see how they will do with a God no less flamboyant, aloof or judgmental than the Old Testament deity. This time Wonka-God hedges his bets with a pool of applicants and when one does win pass new orchestrated and imponderable test he gets more than is promised – including Paradise and a trip to heaven in the glass elevator (Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator)!

Roald Dahl is surely a literary genius and a unique and important voice in children’s literature. It may seem strange to have an atheist like myself promote the Fall of Man through Dahl’s story in this movie edition, but without worrying too much about that, I must tell you I see a big different in the movie and the book. As a matter of fact, this is the only case I have encountered, where I like the movie much better than the book on a plot-story level. Dahl’s placement of black pygmies in the book version were a racist feature to a story delivered a bit of distaste appearing as a white man’s burden apologia packaged for impressionable children.

However, the karmic balance that runs as a theme in many of Dahl’s books may be working to support the re-entry to paradise angle. The reflexive justice exhibited in Dahl’s work includes Uncle Oswald the seducer getting seduced (“The Visitor”), the antique dealer (“Parson's Pleasure” and the Twits in The Twits (1980) get glued in the end. Each of the children other than Charlie carries the seeds of their own destruction in their fetish-like obsessions with eating (Augustus), chewing (Violet), having (Veruca) and watching (Teavee). The First Pair found in their awareness their end: they did the one thing they were aware they should not. Here is the relevant story from the first verses of Genesis

I am sure you know well the Wonka story, if not reread the script or get if from Amazon.com
on DVD
or VHS.
Also, tell me what you think! BTW, I thought this up one night at the pre-Comerica Park Elwood Bar one night after seeing the film at The State Theatre.

1.1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Consider the lyrics to “The Candy Man”, the song that starts off this musical. This song introduces Wonka as a creator-candy maker with power over the havens and “And makes the world taste good.”.



1.25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Peter Ostrum, that actor that did nothing more than the Charlie role, went on to be a veterinarian and cares for all these creations.



2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In his first words of the film, Slugworth ends his insidious offer to Chartlie with “And don't forget the name: Everlasting Gobstopper.” Popular interpretation of the Genesis story is that Adam and Eve got knowledge and mortality from the apple-bearing tree passing up eternal life from the other tree.

2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; ...
In this case, a chocolate river.

2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Of course, tasting the knowledge of any of Wonka’s secrets gets the children booted from the running. Charlie, too, commits this sin when he and Grandpa hang back to surreptitiously sample the Fizzy Lifting Drinks. In the end, what matters is not getting caught! Because, while the omniscient does know of this crime, in the end only Charlie is given the opportunity avoid the one unpardonable of choosing ignorance over bliss by returning the Everlasting Gobstopper in what is revealed to be a Job-like setup.


3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Who could me more subtle than the serpentine Slugworth mentioned before the golden tickets, but shown to us subtly advising Augustus Gloop.

3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
WONKA: “Little surprises around every corner but nothing dangerous.” Of course, the reality of the factory was that one’s actions had just as severe repercussions as for Adam and Eve in the garden. Taking the non-dangerous path would be as rewarding as Wonka intones in “Pure Imagination”: “IF YOU WANT TO VIEW PARADISE
SIMPLY LOOK AROUND AND VIEW IT

ANYTHING YOU WANT TO, DO IT

WANT TO MAKE THE WORLD

THERE'S NOTHING TO IT

THERE IS NO LIFE I KNOW

TO COMPARE WITH PURE IMAGINATION


LIVING THERE YOU'LL BE FREE IF YOU TRULY WISH TO BE”

3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life
This makes me think of the eerie, mysterious “tinker” at the gates of the factory. “Nobody ever goes in, . . . and nobody ever comes out!” This sets the stage of a “postlapsarian” Paradise re-introduced to humanity. As a special note, the tinker quotes from the wonderful poem “The Fairies”, by William Allingham.

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