At first glance, one might assume that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a feel-good story. Charlie is a likable, well behaved, optimistic and kind child with a rags to riches story. The setting is a fantastical and whimsical sugary paradise, the stuff a childhood paradise might be made from. Everything neatly wrapped up with a moralistic bow of the good little boy gets the candy.
If one looks deeper, they can pull much darker messages and undertones from the movie. Full of symbolism for anyone who wants to pay attention, disguised as entertainment. The story is a criticism of many things including bad parenting, gum-chewing, television, spoiling children, over-eating, and self-indulgence. Charlie is the protagonist you want to cheer …show more content…
The character is multifaceted and could easily have lost the many layers of symbolism that exist in the storyline. Somehow Gene Wilder manages to create a character that children love even though he can be quite cynical and dark. Holding true to a whimsicality that matches the chocolate factory itself and still maintaining a powerful, authoritative feel. As a child watching Willy Wonka was a mysterious and fascinating maker of magical delights, as an adult, he appears cold, judgmental, and narcissistic. The self-serving nature of creating so much chaos to find someone to create and mold in his likeness with the golden tickets, closing the factory to protect his precious ideas and his disdain for the rest of the world are all prevalent in the character Gene created. Whether watching Willy Wonka strictly to be entertained, or to challenge yourself to find the metaphoric meaning of the movie Gene Wilder did a fantastic job depicting Willy Wonka.
There are several correlations between Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and the other pieces of literature throughout the term. The characters of Veruca, Mike, Augustus and Violet can be compared in behavior to those which Wallace’s speaks of as destroying happiness, and Charlie’s return of the gobstopper as taking the moment to think of others feelings and being accountable for his choice to steal the Fizzy Lifting
If one looks deeper, they can pull much darker messages and undertones from the movie. Full of symbolism for anyone who wants to pay attention, disguised as entertainment. The story is a criticism of many things including bad parenting, gum-chewing, television, spoiling children, over-eating, and self-indulgence. Charlie is the protagonist you want to cheer …show more content…
The character is multifaceted and could easily have lost the many layers of symbolism that exist in the storyline. Somehow Gene Wilder manages to create a character that children love even though he can be quite cynical and dark. Holding true to a whimsicality that matches the chocolate factory itself and still maintaining a powerful, authoritative feel. As a child watching Willy Wonka was a mysterious and fascinating maker of magical delights, as an adult, he appears cold, judgmental, and narcissistic. The self-serving nature of creating so much chaos to find someone to create and mold in his likeness with the golden tickets, closing the factory to protect his precious ideas and his disdain for the rest of the world are all prevalent in the character Gene created. Whether watching Willy Wonka strictly to be entertained, or to challenge yourself to find the metaphoric meaning of the movie Gene Wilder did a fantastic job depicting Willy Wonka.
There are several correlations between Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and the other pieces of literature throughout the term. The characters of Veruca, Mike, Augustus and Violet can be compared in behavior to those which Wallace’s speaks of as destroying happiness, and Charlie’s return of the gobstopper as taking the moment to think of others feelings and being accountable for his choice to steal the Fizzy Lifting