More on The Factory
Mike picks up on a lot of things I didn’t about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I can’t believe I forgot about the lockout (that was dead obvious, wasn’t it?), but I could never have come up with the sharp analysis of the children that he did. The comments are sharp too, saving my own.
Another thing does occur to me in passing: the way in which the children and their parents are set at each other’s throats by Wonka’s framing of the visit as a zero-sum game. The Beauregarde-Salt moment takes on a new sort of intensity, as do the sundry oneupsmanships among the parents. Note that Wonka himself is off-limits as a game piece, having set himself above the game; any attempt to approach him directly (I am thinking of Mr. Salt and Ms. Beauregarde particularly) fails.
That ruthlessness deriving from the game rules sounds all, all too familiar.