A rags to riches story

When reading through the materials and thinking about rags to riches narratives, I had to explore this one. The film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) is certainly a tale of rags to riches, and also a narrative, perhaps a warning, of the evils of excess.

This story centers around Charlie Bucket, a boy who lives at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. He is being raised by a single mother, his home is falling apart, they are food insecure, and they have elders in the home to care for. Charlie walks by the Wonka factory every day, dreaming about what must be going on inside.

Wonka creates a massive demand for his bars by hiding 5 golden tickets in bars around the world. The promise is an experience and prize beyond their wildest dreams if they are the lucky winner. Winning would mean fame and a rise in status. The first 4 winners do so from the efforts of their parents who want them to win. They are upper-middle and upper-class families who have the income to support the purchase of a massive amount of candy. Their children are coddled, spoiled, gluttonous, and disrespectful...and yet they still go to great lengths to make them happy under the premise of wanting them to have a better life than they did.

Charlie's story is only different in where he comes from. His mother still wants the best for him. In this song for him, she's using powerful imagery surrounding the American Dream. She states "the world is still your toy" and "look up Charlie, you'll see a star. Just follow it and keep your dream in view." Charlie has a newspaper route to help his family. He works hard and yearns for the life he sees that others have around him. This is evident in the scene where he walks by the candy shop and watches all the other kids having fun inside.

Once at the factory, Mr. Wonka sets out to find the person he deems worthy to win his ultimate prize. The kids are eliminated one by one due to their greed. Though Charlie and Grandpa Joe breaks the rules, they can find a solution and help themselves. (Ingenuity leads to success). Mr. Wonka starts to throw them out even though Charlie is the last child left. After an argument, Charlie makes the decision to be honest and return the "everlasting gobstopper" instead of giving it to the competition. This honesty changes Mr. Wonka's heart and he gives Charlie the factory (Honesty and being a good person leads to success.)

Beyond being a rag to riches story, this film highlights morality. In the time of sex. drugs, and rock&roll this movie shows the dangers of "sin". Clearly depicted in the winning children are sloth, greed, gluttony, and pride. Though it is portrayed comedically, the "how to be a better person" lesson is there. The Oompa Loompa songs articulate the lessons.

Modern Cowboy/Western

The archetype of the cowboy and the western plays out in unconventional ways in many modern books, films, and television shows. A good example that casts to cowboy as both a good guy and an outlaw is Breaking Bad. The show ran 5 seasons from 2008 to 2013 and tells the story of a man who is desperate to make sure his family is taken care of after he is gone. Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher, husband, and father to a teenage son with cerebral palsy and a newborn daughter when he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He discovers his health insurance will not cover treatment and embarks on a misguided trek to treat his illness and provide for his family's future by amassing wealth quicky, using a skill he has taught for years: Chemistry. With the help of a former student, Jesse Pinkman, and insider knowledge from his brother-in-law (a DEA agent), he evades the authorities and becomes the kingpin of crystal meth. It's a story of good vs evil and challenges the viewer's morality.

Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico this series is sometimes coined a neo-western. The series has 2 distinctly different settings. There is the wild west which is represented by several desert scenes: cooking in the RV and meetings with dangerous characters. The show also largely takes place inside of civilization in the city. This series has 2 distinctly different cowboys. Walter is an unconventional cowboy. He is both the hero and the anti-hero. An almost invisible man, in the beginning, transforms into a powerful figure, a family man that is also an outlaw. In contrast, you also see him transform and age, becoming more fragile and frail as his cancer progresses. The other cowboy character in the series is Hank Schrader. Hank is a man's man, a devoted, albeit brash, husband; the hero special agent who is cleaning up Albequerque by getting the meth off the streets.

There are numerous ways to connect this series back to the video. Lance talks about the mythos of the cowboy. Both Walt and Hank display "the cultural values of what it means to be a man." Aspects of them are both idealized. Walt and hank both have an insatiable desire to provide for and protect their families. They are both men who bring order: Hank as a law enforcement agent and Walt in his quest to get rid of the "bad guys", the murderous thugs that control the meth market and sell an inferior product. They both have many of the attributes of the cowboy: white, male, masculine, self-reliant, and both dealing with foreign threats: Hank within his dangerous role as a special DEA agent, and Walt in his rise to kingpin, defeating the dealers and powerful organizations in the drug world. Breaking Bad fits the genre of a western in numerous ways. They face external threats in the form of gangs and drug lords from Mexico. Walt also "stakes new territory" several times throughout the series, defeating and removing obstacles in his way. A powerful connection from the video is a bit that describes an attribute of a western is "civilizations ways are not useful or relevant." Walt feels as though the way things are supposed to work has failed him and his family. He's been the good man but the only way to survive is to "break bad."

Westworld

Westworld is one of Hbo's newest series. From the trailer and first episode, you are introduced to a wild west like setting. The richest people visit Westworld, which is a interactive amusement park to live out there wildest fantasies able to do whatever the want. In the amusement park there are “hosts, hosts are robots created by who I call “ God" Dr. Robert Ford. You have the basic and very straight forward dialogue that you would find in any old western series, they use it more as a parody among the hosts. The way that westworld fits into the western narrative is that you do have the western setting but also the hero and villain plot.

Teddy is introduced to us as the hero, there to save another host named Delores from the man in black. He has the clothing, dialogue, and manners of a cowboy. Teddy's outfit in the first few episodes are him in a brown hat, coat, vest, trousers and the typical cowboy boots, the look is spot on. To top it all off he has the leather gun holder, to complete the perfect cowboy ensemble. 

When Teddy speaks to Delores you can tell that he has a soft spot for her. In other western narratives the cowboy seems to act the same towards everyone that he comes across. If you were to watch the show, you will start to realize that Teddy is one of the smarter hosts there. I do not want to give too much of the show away but that plays a major part into why he is not the straight forward cowboy.