When I was in elementary school, I was almost always reading something. I remember one author had a series of books that I loved reading because he showed us that not everything in life is easy, and sometimes the person who you least expect can make the biggest difference in your life.
This author was Roald Dahl.
A lot of his stories (written for children) show us that there is something to be proud of at a young age. You read his stories and you saw characters who were not even teenagers yet, but they were able to be the protagonist. Most children’s authors of the time were trying to show us that we had limits as young people, but with Dahl’s works, he made you feel as though you could climb any mountain.
Dahl was also not afraid to make it known that the adults in the stories were the villains. Dahl wanted the stories to have morals and lessons that were easily digestible for a young kid reading about characters that were near in age to them.
I remember two of my favorite stories that Dahl wrote were “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.” These two books introduced us to a very diverse cast of protagonists who were under the age of thirteen. Dahl created “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and wrote about characters that had flaws. Dahl was very known for making the characters all have a weakness that they try to overcome.
In “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” he had characters that were gluttonous, very selfish and all wrapped up in their own world. Dahl wanted to make a protagonist that you would want to cheer for, and that is when he decided to come up with the character Charlie Bucket.
Charlie was from a home that only had a couple rooms and he was very poor. He was likable though because you saw that he had a good heart. Charlie was raised by his mother and father, and he had four grandparents of all different ages and backgrounds. Charlie was also very helpful in trying to make some money so his family would not starve or have to deal with the harsh reality of being poor. Charlie was very modest and was not self-serving.
Charlie is one of those young kids that you wanted to see succeed and get everything he ever wanted. He wanted his family to be taken care of even if that means that he would go without. As a child, I always admired Charlie for his love of his family and how much he was willing to do to help them get through the tough times.
I was very pleased as a kid that they made a movie version of the story of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” released in 1971. The movie was not very successful at first, but when the movie came to VHS, it had a second surge of interest and became a best-selling adaption.
Dahl worked closely on developing a script, and he was not very happy with how it turned out because his original version was much darker than the film version. When I watched this movie as a kid, I remember being very interested in the man that they cast to be the owner of the chocolate factory.
His name was Gene Wilder. He became my favorite actor, and I have seen everything that he was in. I also loved the actor that they cast to play Charlie’s grandfather, Grandpa Joe. His name was Jack Albertson. He was the perfect choice to play Grandpa Joe.
As I got older, I realized that the movie was going to be my favorite. I know I watched it more than one-hundred times. Even if Dahl was not that big of a fan, I still enjoyed it very much.
