Deadly sins and humility

I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yesterday. I wasn't too familiar with the story beforehand, so here's the skinny. Willy Wonka has this amazing chocolate factory that no one has really seen the inside of. There are no employees that go in and out. One day, Willy Wonka announces that there are five golden tickets in his candy bars, and if a child happens to come across one, he'll be able to tour the factory. So, here's Charlie, a child from a poor family. He desperately wants to tour the factory, but his chances are slim, as the family can't afford much, so the only time he receives a candy bar is on his birthday. The ticket isn't in the bar, but he eventually finds money to get another one. Chances are slimmer, as four other tickets have been found. Needless to say, he gets the last ticket.

So we meet the other four kids. Kid who just loves food and sugar, kid who has to win everything, kid who has to have everything, and kid who would just be content with nothing but his TV and video games. As Wonka lets the kids and their parents tour, each kid (besides Charlie) falls to their weakness and is taken out of the tour with consequences for their actions.

Augustus, the heavy child, is first to go. He becomes infatuated with the chocolate river, begins to drink from it, and falls in. He's sucked up to some tube and we don't see from him again until he leaves the gates of the factory. The deadly sin of gluttony is his downfall.

Gluttony, the over-indulgence of food or drink to the point of waste. Withholding it from those who need it. The basic worship of the material idea of food.

Violet, the competitive child, is second. When Wonka introduces a prototype three-course-meal-gum, Violet, the world champion gum chewer immediately pops it into her mouth against Wonka's warnings. As the gum is a prototype, it doesn't work completely. She enjoys the tomato soup and roast beef flavors, but when it arrives at the dessert, Violet literally turns into a blueberry. We don't see of her again until she is squeezed and released at the front gates. The deadly sin of hubris.

Hubris, the exaggerated, unneccesary pride. The worst of all sins to commit. When someone does an honorable deed out of the need to be praised, it takes all good and humility away from it. All men are created equally and God loves us all the same. Placing yourself higher than others as a person complete contradicts that.

Veruca, the selfish girl, is third. Wonka shows the tourists a room in which squirrels are trained to crack open nuts and put them in a chute. Recognized bad nuts are thrown in a dump. This girl, who had her dad buy 300,000 Wonka bars to find her ticket (and gave no thanks but another demand for a pony after that), had an unnatural desire for one of those trained squirrels. Who wouldn't. Again, against Wonka's warnings, the girl climbed down and tried to grab one. The squirrels, as their instincts tell them to do, all group together, pin her down, determine her as a bad nut, and throw her down the garbage chute to be incinerated by fire. Luckily, the incinerator is broken until next Wednesday. Regardless, she comes out of the factory gates with disgusting garbage all over her. The deadly sin of avarice.

Avarice, the sin of greed. The idea that you must have earthly things, even if it means that the people who need them don't get them. Often envious of others. Nothing satisfies, and your goal in life is going the complete opposite direction. The disciples left all earthly things they had to follow Jesus.

Mike, the TV kid, is last. Now, the weakness of this kid is kinda weird. When Wonka transports a candy bar from a table to inside a TV. The kid is amazed and wants to try to teleport himself, once again against Wonka's wishes. He's transported to the TV, but when he comes out, he's as small as he was inside the TV. Basically, he was to scale. This kid likes violent TV and video games. Some people say his sin is sloth. He tried to use the teleporter to transport humans and bring a revolution to travel. I don't know. Skipping this one.

So we have gluttony, hubris, and avarice. All deadly, and all intertwined. Having as much food as you can is a form of avarice, and being so greedy that you must have everything when others don't is prideful. They all bring us down from grace, even when we don't know it. Most of the time, we don't catch ourselves. "That kid's going to hell." "These kids are so stupid." "I've gotta have this music." "How dare they talk to me like that?" "No, I really do need all of my lunch. But you can have this gone-bad-broccoli." I catch myself many times. It takes a lot of work seeing as how we come from midde-class/high-class families. We were raised spoiled.

But not Charlie.

Charlie, since he was the last kid on the tour, wins the keys to the Wonka Factory to spend his days with Willy Wonka and all the candy. But he can't bring his family. When Charlie realizes this, he declines the request without any hesitation. He knows what's important in his life. Only having what he needed growing up was part of that. And he needed his family. As we all should need ours. He turns away the temptations that took the other kids out of the factory, and those were some pretty sweet (pun) temptations. But the thing is, Charlie's upbringing in what a lot of us would call poverty has helped him to become this fairy-tale hero. It's harder for us to do what he does because of our many possessions, amount of money, and sometimes, unloving parents. But it's possible. We just have to become humble in our lives. We have to live for others, including both family and people we don't know.

"You have only succeeded in life when the only things you want are the only things you need."