Reviews with content warning for Racism - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

11 reviews

stindex's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

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bookish_afroqueen's review against another edition

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4.0

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rock_hyrax's review against another edition

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The description of the 'pygmies' wonka had 'imported' from Africa, and who were now working in his underground factory without the outside world even knowing they were there, was a bit too racist for me. Seriously, there are 3000 workers living in that factory.

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sellnow_hannah's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Read this book in Spanish to practice. Of course I knew the story but I was VERY surprised by the Atlantic slave trade parallels with the story of the Oompa Loompas. As a kid I thought of them as Willy Wonka’s lovable friends but the book depiction of them is very different and honestly incredibly racist. This detracted from the story for me (hence the low rating). The translation was interesting - they used the vosotros verb tenses more than I’m accustomed to, which was good for learning.

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kayleigh_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was so cute and fun! I had such a good time while reading and really enjoyed it! I will say this book did have some issues that just didn’t sit well with me like Willy Wonka being depicted as the savior of the Oompa Loompas and the fatphobia present throughout the book. I also felt like some of the chapters felt disconnected from the one previous and made it seem like some chapters were there own little story. Overall though I really enjoyed it and it was a fast fun read!

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te_ss_i's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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forsidious's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

-1 star for the blatant racism and fatphobia making it near unreadable. I knew this one would be rough, but damn. Fatphobia galore and happy colonized slaves - and lets not forget these are the censored oompa loompas. The story is a classic, but even with reworking some of these aspects are hard to ignore to appreciate the story underneath.

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obviousthings's review against another edition

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katharina90's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

At its core Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is such a magical story that continues to bring joy to children and adults alike.

Unfortunately its flaws are impossible to ignore: repeated body shaming/fatphobia, patriarchal ideas of how women and girls ought to behave, ableist language.

Even the whitewashing of the original text (which introduced the Oompa-Loompas as Africans smuggled to the UK in crates... yikes!) doesn't obscure the icky owner-property relationship between Wonka and his factory "workers".

I'm leaving my 4 star rating in place for now but reading this book definitely involves a lot of cringing these days.

I continue to wrestle with the legacy of authors like Roald Dahl. He was a man who unashamedly held incredibly harmful views and wrote children's books that perpetuate antisemitism, racism, sexism, fatphobia and ableism.

And yet, his stories are whimsical and fun and beloved by so many.

Can we hold space for both of these truths?

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nikexistiertnik's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.25

"tv bad books good >:("
"overeating digusting >:("
"chewing gum bad >:("
idk i just really didn't enjoy this, and what the hell does willy wonka think he's doing with the oompa-loompas?

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