Bonus Books: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and Sleeping Beauty by the Grimm Brothers

What have you been doing with your summer? To me, summer directly correlates with childhood. Running barefoot outside. Staying up late. Sleeping in until noon. Trying to save your soft serve ice cream from melting faster than you can eat it. Maybe it is because I am a teacher and I have the luxury of having my summers off. I have no husband or kids to plan around. I can simply be. This time in summer gives me time to recharge my battery and let me enjoy the simple things that I don’t usually see everyday, but maybe children do. This doesn’t mean I just sit around sucking my thumb and watching cartoons all day. You can still express your inner child as a fully functioning adult. Let loose for a little while, let your imagination flow, enjoy the spontaneity of the summertime.

Gene Wilder (original) vs. Johnny Depp (remake)

            It is fitting that the two stories I am going to focus on are ones that many of us associate with our childhoods. It is well known to every Gilmore Girls fan that one of Lorelai and Rory’s favorite movies is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original, duh, not the Johnny Depp remake). In episode 7, we hear about their Willy Wonka night for the first time and their

tradition of watching with a copious amount of sweets. I have seen the original movie many times throughout my childhood. I loved it, but had to watch it sparingly because it always made me want sweets I knew I could never actually have (I wanted to drink that chocolate fountain so bad!).

            When I read Roald Dahl’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as an adult, I finally realized how dark and twisted the novel actually is. Four of the children almost DIE in the

factory, or are eliminated from the competition in Wonka’s eyes, in a manor that corresponds to their flaws. Augustus is sucked into a pipe after disobeying Wonka’s order to not drink from the chocolate river. Violet turns into a blueberry after chewing Wonka’s unfinished meal replacement chewing gum. Veruca is discarded with the “bad nuts” in the Nut Testing Room. And Mike is shrunk and transported into a television. Even though each of these children are brats and disobeyed direct request from Wonka, these punishments are quite dark for a children’s story. As a child watching it, you have enough distance from the real world to not realize how dark the story is. You just see that the bad kids are punished and the good kid is rewarded. Roald Dahl did say that when writing children’s stories, one has to exaggerate the badness in the bad characters and the goodness in the good characters. If you think about it, Charlie has no flaws and does nothing wrong without the story. He is not a very complex character, but children aren’t reading this for the intricacies of the character; they want to see larger than life situations. That is what keeps them reading. It is only when you are older that you appreciate the subtle nuances in characters.

            Both Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were also mentioned in this episode. I already discussed my thoughts on Cinderella in a previous post. It is like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in that it is much darker than it originally appears. The Grimm Brothers’ version of Sleeping Beauty is also dark, but not to the extent of Cinderella. As a child, I always preferred Sleeping Beauty to Cinderella. My hair was a lot blonder as a child so I always thought she was the Disney Princess that looked the most like me. So, naturally, I was Sleeping Beauty for about three Halloweens in a row. She wouldn’t be the princess I would choose to be now. Although, I am extremely jealous by her ability to sleep.

    

        The first issue I have with the original tale of Sleeping Beauty is that the entire situation could have been avoided if they just invited all the fairies to the party. The only reason Princess Aurora and her people are cursed is because her parents only had room to invite twelve out of thirteen fairies. Come on! How difficult would it have been to invite just one more?! Of course, she would find out about it. Do you really want to piss off a fairy?

            Joking aside, I know that it is no fun to be the person left out. It hurts, you are angry, and you wonder why you weren’t included. I also know what happens when someone is left out of something you are involved in. It always comes back to bite you in the butt. Maybe the moral of Sleeping Beauty is to make sure everyone is included.

            The second issue I have with all versions of Sleeping Beauty is WHY IN GOD’S NAME WOULD YOU PURPOSELY PRICK YOUR FINGER ON A NEEDLE? ARE YOU DUMB? I am sorry, but once you are past the age of five you should know better. When I was little, I always touched the prickly part of a cactus at Home Depot and would scream bloody murder. Every single time we went. I’m pretty sure I stopped doing this by the time I became a teenager. Come on, Aurora, you should know better.

            Now I know Sleeping Beauty can be a romantic story; only the kiss from your true love can break the spell. That is nice in theory, but if my true love wakes me from my slumber, I will be mad. Considering I don’t always sleep, I would be extremely displeased if someone woke me up when I didn’t have to be up (to put it lightly). I guess if I were under a sleeping spell, it would be a nice way to be woken up. In real life, though, it wouldn’t be a pretty situation.

             I always enjoy rereading books that I read as a child. I gain new insights as an adult, but I also miss the innocence I had when I read them as a child. I look at these stories in a different way. In my memories, these stories appear as one way; but now I realize that I can't experience these stories the same way anymore. It is sad in a way, but also shows the power of literature. Each time you read a book, you gain something new. The experiences you have impact how you interact with the text and that is magical. If you look at it that way, no one is ever reading the same exact book. 

Images
Gene Wilder/Johnny Depp: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjq9dyi_Z7dAhXLV98KHar2CsYQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fconsequenceofsound.net%2F2016%2F09%2Fgene-wilder-believed-tim-burtons-willy-wonka-remake-was-an-insult%2F&psig=AOvVaw3NUI0tOMQY8Xi2djASCXsQ&ust=1536069036275545
Book Cover:https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi-49vo_Z7dAhVqc98KHX65AZcQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.ca%2FCharlie-Chocolate-Factory-Roald-Dahl%2Fdp%2F0142410314&psig=AOvVaw06GSNNz7rrPUWuBQ_e1uBD&ust=1536069193990269
Sleeping Beauty: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiY2cSV_p7dAhWGT98KHZWmDQsQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.transparentpng.com%2Fcats%2Fsleeping-beauty-2.html&psig=AOvVaw1tcmYghEltP9OkAwoooygH&ust=1536069279482385
Movie Still:https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiYqvi9_p7dAhVFT98KHY7WCPoQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kidspot.com.au%2Fparenting%2Freal-life%2Fin-the-news%2Fmum-wants-sleeping-beauty-banned-as-it-has-an-inappropriate-message%2Fnews-story%2Fd658efeae1355e0fa17c979adef2e2e2&psig=AOvVaw1tcmYghEltP9OkAwoooygH&ust=1536069279482385