‘Woke’ Willy Wonka: Roald Dahl Controversy, Explained

Classic children’s books written by Roald Dahl, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, are being rewritten to remove potentially offensive language, a move which has offended readers across the internet.

The changes were made by the publisher, Puffin, and the Roald Dahl Story Company, which is now owned by Netflix; the streaming giant acquired the literary estate in 2021 for a reported $1 billion, and plan to use Dahl’s stories as a launchpad for “the creation of a unique universe across animated and live-action films and TV, publishing, games, immersive experiences, live theater, consumer products and more.”

What has changed?

Sensitivity readers have combed over the works of Dahl, and smoothed over the edges of a notoriously sharp, spiky author, removing words and adding entire passages; Augustus Gloop is no longer “fat,” he’s “enormous” (still seems kind of mean, but ok), while Mrs Twit from The Twits is no longer “ugly,” just “beastly.”

Any parent who has read Dahl’s books to their children knows that there are deranged tirades nestled among these wonderful stories, like razor blades hidden inside a succulent candy bar. Dahl is such a uniquely unhinged, wildly imaginative writer who, sometimes, goes on weird rants where he gleefully fat shames children, or ties physical beauty directly to virtue.

Some of the word changes, however, don’t seem to make much sense at all. The words “black” and “white” have been removed; the BFG no longer wears a black cloak, for some reason, and characters no longer turn “white with fear,” the Daily Telegraph reported.

When Matilda, the young genius, discovers her passion for reading, she is no longer lost in the writing of Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling; the two have been replaced by Jane Austen and John Steinbeck.

On Twitter, commentators criticized the changes to Dahl’s books as “woke” and “absurd.” Daily Telegraph arts and entertainment editor Anita Singh wrote: “The thing that annoys me about the Roald Dahl changes is how stupid they are. A ban on the word ‘fat’ yet keeping in the rest of the description in which Augustus Gloop is clearly fat.”

Author Salman Rushdie wrote, “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”

Political cartoonist Matt Bors denounced the edits as “pathetic and embarrassing stuff that can’t be supported in a time of massive censorious book bans.”

There was no divide between right-wingers and progressives; the vast majority of critics expressed concern that the Dahl edits would set a precedent, where works can be altered in response to an ever-shifting cultural climate.

This isn’t the first time Dahl’s stories have been edited to remove offensive material; the iconic singing, dancing Oompa-Loompas of Wonka’s chocolate factory were originally described as African Pygmy people, whom Wonka “smuggled” out of Africa in crates. In a 1973 revision of the book, Dahl rewrote the Oompa-Loompas as fantastical creatures, akin to pixies or dwarves.

Nothing was lost in this change, aside from a racist caricature, although it’s notable that Dahl himself chose to make the edit. It wasn’t the first time the author exposed his bigotry; Dahl was also deeply anti-Semitic, and was notorious for making shockingly anti-Semitic statements. Dahl’s family apologized on behalf of the author in 2020.

For all his faults, Dahl excelled at writing twisted personalities who make terrible role models, but deeply compelling characters.

Dahl’s macabre stories are brimming with abusive, hateful adults who prey on vulnerable children; the sharp edges are an essential part of the experience. When rereading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it’s obvious that there’s something wrong with Willy Wonka; he seems to be deliberately pushing these children into temptation, for his own amusement.

Dahl’s fixation with punishing the children in his story for the crimes of “chewing gum,” being “fat” and “watching TV” are incredibly revealing, not just about Dahl’s personal pathologies, but about the cold, merciless environment he grew up in.

The story of Wonka’s chocolate factory is timeless, but many elements have aged badly, because the book is a product of a different time; shouldn’t these works be left untouched, so we can understand how much things have changed?

If publishers are going to smooth over all the rough edges of classic stories, we might as well leave fiction writing to the AI sludgebots, and be done with it. After all, there is no danger in allowing old stories to age badly; new stories that reflect progressive values and subvert harmful tropes are being born all the time; today’s cosmic horror is imbued with the existential dread of H.P. Lovecraft, without the rabid racism.

It should be noted that the sensitivity purge to Dahl’s works was not made in response to a campaign demanding a kinder, gentler Roald Dahl. This was a business decision, an attempt to keep Dahl’s work palatable to a wide audience, a case of prioritizing profit over artistic integrity, likely so that Netflix’s cinematic universe can flourish, without alienating potential customers.

This was the market at work, not “woke snowflakes.”

After all, today’s kids face a chaotic media landscape far more problematic than Dahl’s perverse obsessions; TikTok is vomiting out Andrew Tate clips, radicalizing 11-year-olds into misogynists, and YouTube is churning out nightmare fuel by the hour.

A content warning at the beginning of Dahl’s books would surely suffice, as it does for offensive Disney cartoons; if children are old enough to read and enjoy Dahl’s stories, they’re old enough to understand context.