Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as Judeo-Christian Allegory

Leaning against a car fender in the front yard of an ordinary home, nervously sits a six year old, pondering his drowning innocence as he stares at an empty pie tin. Gary Soto, in his excerpt from A Summer Life, vividly recalls just how he felt that day after stealing a pie from the German Market. At this time in his life, Soto acted to please God, had faith filled morals, and described himself as being “holy in almost every bone,” but boredom got the best of him on that brisk summer day. In this narrative, Soto utilizes imagery, diction, and biblical allusion to recreate his experience for the readers. Gary Soto, the author, uses precise diction to convey the thoughts and feelings that ran through his head before, during, and after he had stolen the piece of pie.

Regardless of personal beliefs or opinions, it is nearly impossible to imagine the existence of modern English literature without the influence of religion. Since the dawn of recorded history, religion has played a vital, recurring role in works of fact and fiction, alike. In his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, author Thomas Foster asserts several points about this relationship between religion and literature, especially in relation to the image of Christ, and states, “Culture is so influenced by its dominant religious systems that whether a writer adheres to the beliefs or not, the values and principles of those religions will inevitably inform the literary work” (125).

Throughout history, one of the most prominent facets of any society is religion. It influences every aspect of civilization, from culture to government and from social rules to music. Literature, too, cannot escape the grasp religion holds on society. Works like Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy show the awesome power religion inspires within people; contrastively, works like Huckleberry Finn and The Visit show the rampant cynicism religion inspires within people. Written by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Visit is filled with religious symbols and references to Christianity. Instead of honoring the religion, though, the references only ridicules it.

In the autobiographical narrative “The Pie” by Gary Soto, the author recreates the experience of his guilty six-year-old self as he describes his first experience with stealing. He effectively portrays his worst sin through his use of contrast, repetition, and imagery. While contrast describes the existence of both the Holy ways and temptation of human desires that Soto faces, repetition emphasizes the guilt that he is feeling, and imagery aids the reader in imagining the guilt and satisfaction that Soto is feeling through the eyes of a six-year-old.

Childhood, as we all know, is the state or period of being a child; the early period in the development of something (Merriam-Webster). The movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) illustrates five different children with each having different behavior, and they have one thing in common they are the only child in their family. These children are in the middle childhood, primary school age, around age seven or eight. What makes them different from each other is interesting. It allows the viewers to think if their behavior is either result of their experience or how they were raised. How they perceive things and how they behave are part of their cognitive development. The major domain of early childhood development is their cognitive development and the arguable aspects of the Nature-Nurture.

The 1971 Mel Stewart film, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, is about a little boy named Charlie Bucket, who is very poor and wants to do something to help his family. The movie starts by showing that there is a contest going on for people to win a special tour through the factory of Wonka Chocolate Company and a lifetime supply of chocolate. There are only five special golden tickets hidden inside products from the Wonka Company. When the five people have found the tickets, there is a big gathering on the day of the tour with big crowds of people and news people too to see Mr wonka come out from his factory to greet the winners. When the children and their parents are inside the factory the children sign a thing saying they will not steal or take information or do bad things and they all go on their way for the tour. Right away, it all seems very strange with coat hooks that move and weird size doors and rooms. Inside of the factory is very much a different world. The workers are small orange men who sing songs telling about the behaviors people should not have.

The Christ figure is a recurring symbol in American literature. Throughout Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, various interactions and events portray McMurphy as a Christ figure. There are frequent visual and concrete references to Christ throughout the novel. Also, the reader discovers that the other patients view McMurphy as an inspiration and someone they wish to emulate. This cooperation enables him to oppose Nurse Ratched and do what he thinks is best for the patients.

In both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland the underlying meaning can come from the character’s curiosity. In Alice in Wonderland, the whole premise of the movie is based on Alice’s curiosity as a person. This is what leads her down the rabbit whole (1:35:53-1:35:04). In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie’s curiosity about Willie Wonka and this Factory is what leads him to buying the chocolate bar (1:26:16-1:25:47). The curiosity of both characters eventually leads them so something great. One theme that is portrayed in both of these movies is that if one is curious about the world they will find something that they love. Another meaning that is in the interior of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is that the prize in life comes from hard work and sacrifice. Charlie wins the prize from Willie Wonka because Willie sees that Charlie is a hard worker and honest. Charlie gets his hard working personality from his parents and understands hard work because of his poor economic circumstances. The most noticeable interior meaning that is shown in all of Burtons movies, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland, is that the outcast in the beginning of the film ends up being the hero by the end of the film. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie becomes the hero by being able to take over the factory for Willie Wonka. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice is

Forrest Gump’s quote about life being a box of chocolates is well known around the world; however, one when analyzes this, it unlocks an understanding of the film, and to a degree life as well. Almost everyone has eaten a box of chocolates in their life. However, no one individual has the knowledge or foresight to predict what type of chocolate they are going to eat when picking from the box. The piece of chocolate that one chooses can be either sweet, bitter or mediocre. When one chooses a chocolate from the box, they cannot put the chocolate back. This ideology shown here represents two major factors: that one will never know what will occur in the future, while we as humans are inherently filled with and ruled by uncertainty. Robert Zemeckis portrays this notion and demonstrates the box of chocolates as an important symbol in the film. Forrest Gump, is frequently shown holding a box of chocolates in the film. This shows the uncertainty of life, and that even though this uncertainty is present,

This story uses metaphor to mention lots Christian symbols and the different actions between religion-religious people and non-religious people.

Religion also plays an important function in allowing the authors to comment on society and faith’s role in it. For example, both authors seem to be suggesting that our religion is only compatible in society as we know it, that is to say that it is not compatible with other situations. In The Children of Men a major disruption to the working of society, mass infertility, has led to a total destruction of the Christian faith. In Brave New World, an unstoppable surge of machinery and technology has led to the disregard of religious moral and the introduction of a new set of hedonist attitudes, both scenarios being deplored by the reader. This could also be seen as the authors’ asserting that a civilized society desperately needs stable religion and morals, given that the utter breakdown in The Children of Men is arguably as shocking as the superficial worship of machinery and pleasure in Brave New World.

This paper will focus on the theological nature of CS Lewis’ book based film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. This will include a number of noticeable parallelisms, allusions and symbolisms found in

Set in 1950’s France, Chocolat is a film centred on the Catholic virtue of temperance, or rather the struggle to achieve temperance when the church is faced with the temptation of a 2000 year old chocolate recipe. Temperance is defined in the catholic encyclopaedia as “the righteous habit which makes a man govern his natural appetite for pleasures of the senses in accordance with the norm prescribed by reason”, and in Chocolat it is the Comte de Reynaud, the major and self appointed moral authority for the whole community, that attempts to keep check of the villager’s carnal passions and temptations.

Elmer Gantry (1927), an extreme assault on religious hypocrisy (the false expression of the appearance of goodness), seems more concerned with the main character's morals than with the failings of organized religion. Dodsworth (1929), a sympathetic description

Religious imagery is something that can be found in artwork all through the centuries. An anonymous world-renowned graffiti artist who goes by ‘Banksy’ places traditional paintings in public places altered to send an iconoclastic message about society and government. In this image he depicts a traditional figure of Jesus dying on the cross, but in his hands can be found shopping bags full of presents and candy. Jesus, an iconic figure in religious history, has been turned into a puppet to fit the mold of our consumer driven society. The rhetor presents an iconoclastic view that the integral commemoration of Jesus’ death and the religious aspects