Definition
- selfish1 (noun)
- 1. concerned only with one's personal welfare, with total disregard to that of others.
Evidence
Quotes
- Grandpa Joe, after showing Charlie a long-hidden ten-cent piece: “It's my secret hoard. The other's dont know I've got it.”2
- Mrs.Bucket: “Now the first thing to decide is this - who is going to go with Charlie to the factory?”
Grandpa Joe: “I will! I'll take him!"”3 - Grandpa Joe: “I could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field!”4
- Grandpa Joe: “Suddenly I begin to see a bit of good luck for me, cuz I've got a golden ticket.”5
- Grandpa Joe: “What rules?! We didn't see any rules.”6
- Grandpa Joe: “I'll get even with him if its the last thing I do. Slugworth wants a gobstopper, he'll get one.”7
- Willy Wonka: “The factory's yours Charlie you can move in immediately.
Grandpa Joe: “and me?
Willy Wonka: “Absolutely.
Charlie: “What happens to the rest of...
Willy Wonka: “The whole family8 - Grandpa Joe: “We don't wait.”9
Observations
Grandpa Joe, despite crying poor, turns out to have a candy bar hidden under his pillow. In the book, he has a hidden coinpurse.10- During Charlie's birthday celebration it is revealed that while the group determined to buy Charlie a chocolate bar with nuts, Grandpa Joe has instead arranged to buy his favorite candy bar.11
Analysis
In both versions of the tale, it is very clear who is number one in Grandpa Joe's mind. In both versions he decides he must accompany Charlie to the chocolate factory. In the movie, he actually speaks of the ticket as though he, not Charlie, was the winner.
He considers eating everything a viable option. He doesn't pause to consider that others might be hungry. He puts his immediate desire for fizzy lifting drinks ahead of Charlie's lifetime supply of chocolate.
In short, he is worried about himself first and everyone else is a distant second. Even when Wonka give Charlie the factory his first thought is about himself and he never even asks about the rest of the family, not even his own wife.
Footnotes and Sources
- Arbor Media, Inc., AllWords.Com.
Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 AllSites.com, Inc. - Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (New York: Puffin Books, 1998) p. 35
- Dahl, p. 50
- Dahl, p. 66
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, Mel Stuart, US, 100 mins).
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, Mel Stuart, US, 100 mins).
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, Mel Stuart, US, 100 mins).
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, Mel Stuart, US, 100 mins).
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005, Tim Burton, US, 115 mins).
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, Mel Stuart, US, 100 mins).
- Leslie Bricusse and Timothy A. McDonald Willy Wonka Junior (Copyright Unknown, licenced by Music Theater International www.mtishows.com).
