Charlie And The Chocolate Factory: Schizophrenia

Worldwide over 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with schizophrenia this year. About 1% of the population is diagnosed and 1.2% of Americans have this disorder. Schizophrenia is defined as a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusions, and a sense of mental fragmentation. Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory illustrates schizophrenia in this particular film directed by Tim Burton.

One characteristic of schizophrenia that Mr. Wonka portrays is disorganized behavior (The National Institute of Mental Health). According

Asserted in an article from Ebscohost, Piotrowski says that “A person with negative symptoms might be found simply sitting and starring blankly at the world, no matter what is happening” (page 2). In this film, Mr. Wonka portrays this characteristic during the candy land tour inside the chocolate factory. Mr. Wonka escorted the ticket winners into a room that was full of candy. Everything in this room was edible in some sort of way. Robert Ebert expresses in a film review that, “Willy has created this fantastical playground for – himself, apparently” ( par. 5). This room also had a chocolate river that was utilized in every piece of chocolate that he makes. One of the ticket winners fell into the river and was sucked up into a pipe that transported the chocolate all over the factory. Mr. Wonka unlike everyone else showed no sympathy or worry as the boy disappeared into the pipes. Willy Wonka grew up in an environment where he had no parental supervision. By not having an emotional influence in his life, Wonka never learned how to react normally or show any type of emotion. This environment helped indicate his inability to show emotion

Labeling someone with a psychological disorder often times can have a negative affect on the way that person acts. It can easily be taken offensively and can cause them to act out even more now that they have a label. It can also cause them to draw more attention to themselves which can be harmful for them. In this movie labeling Mr. Wonka with schizophrenia actually helped to make it easier to understand why he acts the way that he does. It allows people to understand his huge imagination, crazy inventions, and lack of emotion throughout the entire