Film Theory: Willy Wonka Gave Charlie His Golden Ticket ON PURPOSE
1. Why Wonka Chooses Charlie
The short answer is that he doesn’t. Willy Wonka himself built his empire on the strength of his imagination: he conceived inconceivable sweets and got other people to do the work for him. First that was his “normal” employees and then when the spies infiltrated and he was forced to close, he relied exclusively on Oompa Loompas.
Wonka’s factory is essentially powered by their industry and their master’s ingenuity and imagination. So all Wonka needed was someone pure enough not to ruin his factory secrets but also capable of standing in for him as the Chocolate Factory’s chief imagineer.
And it was Charlie’s imagination - and even more importantly - his capacity for HOPE that sets him apart. Despite the fact that he lives in miserable, abject poverty, he is selfless, good-hearted and hopeful. He refuses to accept how unlikely it would be that he’d win a Golden Ticket without the means to really buy any and he’s completely encapsulated by the romance of that hope.
Some other theorists have claimed that Wonka is actually punishing Charlie by giving him the factory. That the Chocolate Factory is an albatross around his neck that will ultimately destroy his chances of the happy life he craves. They paint Wonka as a villain, and while it’s definitely true that his treatment of the other repugnant children verges on super-villainy, that is fundamentally a major misreading of both what Wonka wants and what Charlie is.
Charlie is hardworking and selfless - he has a newspaper round to help provide for his family, remember - and WANTS to be useful. He knows the value of hard work and shows the same disdain for the other winning children as Wonka does. He is perfectly suited to run the factory, because of his wholesomeness, his work ethic and his imagination. That’s why Wonka went for him specifically.
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