Thoughts on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I've been listening to audiobooks at work. Today I found a good and free version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl. I've read it before, but I'm trying to just throw something on to have as white noise while I do a project at work.
Now that I'm re-listening, there are few things that strike me as worth noting.
-Charlie's entire family of 7 lives in a two-room hut in the same town as a giant chocolate factory.
-The only person that works is Charlie's dad, and he works as someone that screws the caps on tubes of toothpaste. (Mom, and all 4 grandparents are unable to work. Charlie goes to school).
-Grandpa Joe tells a story of Willie Wonka firing all of the factory workers because some of the workers were spies and that was 10 years ago.
-Charlie is 11.
It is reasonable to surmise that Charlie's father is an unskilled laborer with no marketable skills and probably worked at Willie Wonka's factory. He was newly married. He lived in a small house with his wife, both sets of parents, and their infant son. He might have had plans to get a larger house.
Willie Wonka is a paranoid inventor, and when people started finding out how to make some of his (unpatented) types of candy, he fires all of his workers, even the ones that clearly wouldn't be able to replicate the recipes. He fires all of them.
He makes such a small amount of money that family meals are all meager and monochromatic. Once a year, the family can afford one luxury, and that is a small chocolate bar for Charlie.
And then, Willie Wonka's contest occurs and it increases chocolate sales, globally. The winners, as discussed in the book, are people that consume more than the random amount of chocolate that they normally would consume. Even Charlie.
Charlie's entire family scrapes together enough money to get a chocolate bar for Charlie's birthday. There is no golden ticket in it.
Grandpa Joe has been hiding a dime, and gives the dime to Charlie to buy another chocolate bar. There is no golden ticket in it.
At this point in the book, Charlie's dad loses his job at the toothpaste factory. Now he shovels snow for a living and makes even less money.. Charlie (along with everyone else in the family) is slowly dying.
Charlie then finds an entire dollar on the street. Keep in mind, that his entire family is starving at this point. With this dollar, he gets a chocolate bar. And then he gets another.
In real life, He would have gotten another bar of chocolate. And another. And another. until there was no more money. He would have walked home, feeling sick from the chocolate, but also sick with guilt because he spend a month's worth of money, on candy.
Because it is a children's book, it only takes Charlie a total of 4 bars of chocolate (his birthday bar, Grandpa Joe's, Poverty Bar #1, and then the final, Poverty Bar #2) to get the golden ticket. Even Charlie didn't win on the first try, which means that Willie Wonka's marketing scheme ultimately worked.
I had to stop listening to the book for a bit because it genuinely upset me.
EDIT: Starting listening again, and Willie Wonka is a terrible person. He just is the worst. He literally convinced an entire tribe of people to live exclusively in his factory and be paid in cocoa beans. He even said that he sneaked all the Oompa Loompas into the country by shipping them in boxes. This is horrendous.
Now that I'm re-listening, there are few things that strike me as worth noting.
-Charlie's entire family of 7 lives in a two-room hut in the same town as a giant chocolate factory.
-The only person that works is Charlie's dad, and he works as someone that screws the caps on tubes of toothpaste. (Mom, and all 4 grandparents are unable to work. Charlie goes to school).
-Grandpa Joe tells a story of Willie Wonka firing all of the factory workers because some of the workers were spies and that was 10 years ago.
-Charlie is 11.
It is reasonable to surmise that Charlie's father is an unskilled laborer with no marketable skills and probably worked at Willie Wonka's factory. He was newly married. He lived in a small house with his wife, both sets of parents, and their infant son. He might have had plans to get a larger house.
Willie Wonka is a paranoid inventor, and when people started finding out how to make some of his (unpatented) types of candy, he fires all of his workers, even the ones that clearly wouldn't be able to replicate the recipes. He fires all of them.
He makes such a small amount of money that family meals are all meager and monochromatic. Once a year, the family can afford one luxury, and that is a small chocolate bar for Charlie.
And then, Willie Wonka's contest occurs and it increases chocolate sales, globally. The winners, as discussed in the book, are people that consume more than the random amount of chocolate that they normally would consume. Even Charlie.
Charlie's entire family scrapes together enough money to get a chocolate bar for Charlie's birthday. There is no golden ticket in it.
Grandpa Joe has been hiding a dime, and gives the dime to Charlie to buy another chocolate bar. There is no golden ticket in it.
At this point in the book, Charlie's dad loses his job at the toothpaste factory. Now he shovels snow for a living and makes even less money.. Charlie (along with everyone else in the family) is slowly dying.
Charlie then finds an entire dollar on the street. Keep in mind, that his entire family is starving at this point. With this dollar, he gets a chocolate bar. And then he gets another.
In real life, He would have gotten another bar of chocolate. And another. And another. until there was no more money. He would have walked home, feeling sick from the chocolate, but also sick with guilt because he spend a month's worth of money, on candy.
Because it is a children's book, it only takes Charlie a total of 4 bars of chocolate (his birthday bar, Grandpa Joe's, Poverty Bar #1, and then the final, Poverty Bar #2) to get the golden ticket. Even Charlie didn't win on the first try, which means that Willie Wonka's marketing scheme ultimately worked.
I had to stop listening to the book for a bit because it genuinely upset me.
EDIT: Starting listening again, and Willie Wonka is a terrible person. He just is the worst. He literally convinced an entire tribe of people to live exclusively in his factory and be paid in cocoa beans. He even said that he sneaked all the Oompa Loompas into the country by shipping them in boxes. This is horrendous.