Jayson’s Reviews > Charlie and the Chocolate Factory > Status Update

(2) Willy Wonka's kind of a nasty piece of work. He has no tolerance for the ill-mannered, yet he outright scolds two of the three remaining children in front of their parents.
- He scolds Mike Teavee for mumbling and interrupting and Veruca Salt for being impatient.
- It's revealed at the very end, but it's quite clear here, that Willy Wonka has no children. The fact that he expects kids to act like adults and doesn't have any patience or grace for any sort of childishness only telegraphs this. An ironic attitude for a candy-maker.
(3) The "square candies that look round" is the first instance of outright magic and/or magical creatures here. Up to this point, everything's been relatively real-world plausible, or arguably science fiction.
- It's clearly an intentional cross into the fantastic, since the same pun of "squares that look" could have been achieved by something sciency or mechanical. Instead, Oompa-Loompas literally paint faces on square candies that subsequently come alive. It implies the Oompa-Loompas too are perhaps magical creatures.
(4) Veruca's fate for being an impulsive and entitled brat is to be swarmed and pinned down by squirrels and then dumped down a garbage chute toward an incinerator, which is pretty horrifying.
- Willy Wonka just laughs it off like some inhuman space alien or deity: amused if unconcerned with human welfare. Which contrasts with his over-concern with manners and politeness.
(5) The whole thing gets very Hunger Games toward the end.
- Kids drop one by one, in big and showy fashion, until it's just Charlie and Mike Teavee left.
(6) Willy Wonka reveals that he eats cabbage and potatoes, not candy as you'd expect.
- Definitely a dealer who's careful not to get high off his own supply.
- If you remember from the very start of the book, cabbage and potatoes are the only food Charlie and his family can afford to eat. Here we get a direct correlation between Wonka and Charlie's family which suggests an underlying affinity despite outward differences in temper, energy and ostentation.
- It's yet another subverted expectation, which this book has no shortage of.
(7) "Charlie experienced a queer sense of danger. There was something dangerous about this whole business, and the Oompa-Loompas knew it."
- Wait, now he senses danger? The book's almost over.
- Seems to me, the whole thing became one big flashing red light of danger the moment Augustus Gloop fell into the chocolate river and got sucked into the factory pipes.
(8) Mike Teavee's parents worry about him being split into pieces from teleportation gone awry.
- Seems an awful lot like getting splinched in Harry Potter.
- I can understand Mike Teavee's television watching obsession as a primary character motivation, but I don't know if that necessarily translates to literal transmission through the airwaves. It's not as one-to-one as Augustus Gloop's need to eat or Violet Beauregarde's need to chew gum or Veruca Salt's need to get everything she desires.
(9) The Oompa-Loompa's song about Mike Teavee is double-length.
- The first half is the usual dark mockery, but the second half almost seems like an anti-television/pro-reading propaganda piece or campaign ad.
- You could easily replace TV with smart phones and convey exactly the same sentiment to modern audiences. Though, I guess it's basically the same idea. The main difference being that you can't just decide to watch TV in the middle of a conversation. TV watching is a more focused activity whereas smart devices are more intermittent.
(10) This edition ends with sample sections from Matilda, which I'll just skip since I already plan to read it sometime down the line.
(11) Ultimately, I feel around the same way about this as I did with the first Harry Potter book: it's wildly imaginative, clever, and close to a 5-star read for most of it, but ends pretty flat and a bit of a letdown.
- I actually see a whole lot of J.K. Rowling in Dahl, who I can only guess was a major influence on her work.
- Still, a great story and an unequivocal recommendation. For me, it just finished a bit too conventionally "happily ever after," whereas the book had been hitherto wildly unconventional, mischievous and sardonic.