Dear, Roald Dahl

Dear,
Mr. Dahl

Willy Wonka, in my mind, represents Satan. Not God. Some people I’ve heard call him God. No, he represents Satan. And his Candy Factory is sin. Mr. Wonka takes the troop on a tour of the chocolate factory, showing all of the delights. It’s his glibness that makes me find the Devil in him. The candy is there, and danger lurks at every corner. Though, if you walk the path, the narrow path---if you partake of the sins ethically---you end up owning the chocolate factory. Or, in laymen’s term, you receive the goal in life of the desired outcome. Riches, honor, satiation. 

It’s an important metaphor, how the children all eat from the candy. They divert in their own ways. The movie with Gene Wilder has the best rendition of the story, where Grandpa and Charlie nearly destroy themselves. Why? Because it represents grace. The sin is just as dangerous---and in that story, the children do not make it out alive. But, through the parenting of the Grandpa, Charlie is saved.

Of course, the children each have their own behavior problem. One is overly competitive, another is vapid, another watches too much TV---this one I have actually fallen victim to---and another is spoiled. Charlie, however, is humble and while he partakes of the treats in the chocolate factory---those which Wonka glibly shows the children, knowing most of them will meet their doom---he does so responsibly., and he gains possession of the whole factory. He has access to it---through hard work.

That is to say that sin is something invented for a purpose. Killing is meant to destroy wicked men, and thereby be used through justice. Perhaps Charlie becomes a judge, and now has the authority to sentence men to death. Sex is meant for procreation and building a relationship with a woman, and perhaps Charlie finds a wife. Cussing is for an expression of disgust, when the disgust is warranted for the equal reproach---or, perhaps to use as an exclamation---and thereby perhaps Charlie becomes a writer. Theft is meant to take back what someone else had stolen, and perhaps Charlie becomes a Claims Repossession man. Perhaps he becomes a Tax Official. Thereby, every sinful act has its proper use, and only the good child raised by good parents will attain it.

Satan will lead the little villains off to destruction. They will see the temptations, and not eat the candy for its proper use. His glibness, his callousness, is more concerned about the candy, perfecting its flavor, its thrill, its experience. And the children tempted by it fall victim to the vices, and get eaten up by the industrial machinery.

With that said, the story is a metaphor Grandpa walks with Charlie through the factory, yet parents him from the bed. A story is a story. The story is not about Grandpa’s laziness. The story is not about classism, communism, capitalism or anything like that. It is about---for all intents and purposes---the proper use of sin, where it no longer can be called sin.