{"id":35945,"date":"2023-12-22T22:02:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T22:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=35945"},"modified":"2023-12-25T23:57:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-25T23:57:44","slug":"wonka-movie-holds-remnants-of-novels-racist-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wonka-movie-holds-remnants-of-novels-racist-past\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wonka\u2019 movie holds remnants of novel\u2019s racist\u00a0past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meisha Lohmann<\/a>, Binghamton University, State University of New York<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago, I made a visit to a local book sale and came across a rare 1964 edition of Roald Dahl\u2019s \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/a>.\u201d Popular in its own right, the novel has also served as the inspiration for a number of movies, including \u201cWilly Wonka & The Chocolate Factory<\/a>\u201d \u2013 the classic 1971 movie starring the late Gene Wilder \u2013 a 2005 reboot<\/a> starring Johnny Depp, and \u201cWonka<\/a>,\u201d the 2023 version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a child of the 1980s, I had voraciously consumed Dahl\u2019s novels, so I knew the book well. But the illustrations in this particular edition looked unfamiliar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I brought the worn and tattered book home and began to read it aloud to my kids, I realized that some passages looked unfamiliar as well. My voice faltered as the Oompa-Loompas \u2013 the pint-sized workers in Wonka\u2019s chocolate factory \u2013 appeared and Charlie asked, \u201cAre they really made out of chocolate, Mr. Wonka?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To which Wonka replied: \u201cNonsense!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey belong to a tribe of tiny miniature pygmies known as Oompa-Loompas,\u201d Wonka explains in this version of the book. \u201cI discovered them myself. I brought them over from Africa myself \u2013 the whole tribe of them, three thousand in all. I found them in the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had ever been before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accompanying black-and-white illustration of several dark-skinned Oompa-Loompas left me stunned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
An illustration of dark-skinned Oompa-Loompas from the 1964 version of Roald Dahl\u2019s \u2018Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
An illustration of white Oompa-Loompas from a 2011 edition of Roald Dahl\u2019s \u2018Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dahl\u2019s book is part of a long history of children\u2019s books that feature racist stereotypes \u2013 a list that includes six Dr. Seuss books that were removed from publication in 2021<\/a>. Other children\u2019s classics, such as \u201cPeter Pan<\/a>\u201d and \u201cMary Poppins<\/a>,\u201d have also been criticized for perpetuating racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an English lecturer who specializes in decoding some of the hidden meanings and dark realities in popular children\u2019s stories<\/a>, I looked deeper into the blatant racism in the 1964 edition of \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory,\u201d comparing it to a more recent copy from 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, the description of the Oompa-Loompa\u2019s skin had been changed from \u201calmost black\u201d to \u201crosy-white.\u201d And rather than coming from Africa, they came from \u201cLoompaland.\u201d I learned that these changes were made by Dahl for the 1974 edition after criticism by the NAACP<\/a> and others. Dahl\u2019s response was to remove the Black characters altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet as philosophy lecturer Ron Novy points out<\/a>, even the latest editions of the book still perpetuate racist and imperialist ideologies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parallels with slavery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Wonka describes how he \u201csmuggled\u201d the Oompa-Loompas into the country in \u201clarge packing cases with holes in them,\u201d the image clearly recalls slave ships navigating the Middle Passage<\/a>. Wonka\u2019s promise to pay the Oompa-Loompas\u2019 wages in cacao beans, and the admission that no one ever sees them come in or out of the factory, reinforces the Oompa-Loompas\u2019 subjugation to Willy Wonka, who plays the role of their \u201cGreat White Father,\u201d as fourth grade reading teacher Katherine Baxter noted in 1974<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historian Donald Yacovone has pointed out<\/a> that, even in its revised form, \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory\u201d has long contributed to the perpetuation of white supremacist ideology. Not only do the Oompa-Loompas immediately appear \u2013 ready to obey \u2013 whenever Wonka clicks his fingers, but Wonka is also repeatedly dismissive of them. He calls them \u201ccharming\u201d but tells his visitors not to believe a word the Oompa-Loompas say. \u201cIt\u2019s all nonsense, every bit of it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wonka even uses the Oompa-Loompas as experimental subjects. He feeds them gum that turns them into blueberries and fizzy drinks that send one unfortunate man aloft until he \u201cdisappeared out of sight\u201d and was never seen again. These experiments seem a grotesque parody of the myriad cases of enslaved and free Black Americans who have been subjected to experimental surgeries, treatments and medical neglect<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both the book\u2019s current version and in the original, he smuggles them into his factory and pays them in cacao beans because they were \u201cpractically starving to death\u201d and cacao was \u201cthe one food that they longed for more than any other \u2026 but they couldn\u2019t get it\u201d on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an absurd assertion that this community of people, originally located in the heart of Africa, cannot access a crop that, while native to the Amazon, is primarily grown in West African countries<\/a>. That they need Wonka to give them access to the resources of their own land is a damaging colonialist fantasy \u2013 one which, as Yacovone notes, has historically buoyed, rather than diminished, the popularity of the novel and the 1971 and 2005 films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintaining the status quo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the latest Wonka<\/a> movie also engages in the type of implicit racism that remains in the revised 1974 version of the novel. The most prominent Black character, a girl named Noodle, played by the talented Calah Lane<\/a>, takes a back seat to Wonka in the major events of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Wonka almost broke from the tradition of having Wonka played by white men. Early in the new film\u2019s conception, Newsweek<\/a> reported that actor, comedian and musician Donald Glover<\/a> was under consideration for the lead role, a choice that could have at least begun to force a rewrite of the original novel\u2019s racist narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the film casts Noodle in the position of an unfortunate Black girl who can only hope for a ride on Wonka\u2019s velvet coattails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know things haven\u2019t been easy for you,\u201d Wonka says in the movie. \u201cThey\u2019re going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou promise?\u201d Noodle replies, hopefully, and he does promise, highlighting his role as her white savior. Another character in voice-over agrees: \u201cYou could change her life, Mr. Wonka. Change all their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was initially hopeful about the prospect of a movie that moves away from the novel\u2019s racist origins, yet still imparts the power of imagination on a new generation. Unfortunately, moviegoers may find themselves having to hold their breath and make a wish, as Gene Wilder stated in a song<\/a> from the 1971 movie, for a version that holds no remnants of its racist past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meisha Lohmann<\/a>, Lecturer in English Literature, Binghamton University, State University of New York<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meisha Lohmann, Binghamton University, State University of New York Several years ago, I made a visit to a local book sale and came across a rare 1964 edition of Roald Dahl\u2019s \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory.\u201d Popular in its own right, the novel has also served as the inspiration for a number of movies, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[174,1773,1160,2104,11553,4683,2225,1538,14992,1728],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35976,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945\/revisions\/35976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}