he Berkeley McNair Research Journal 47 Chryl Corbin Deconstructing the Oompa-Loompas Deconstructing Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory: Race, Labor, and the Changing Depictions of the Oompa-Loompas Chryl Corbin Mentor: Leigh Raiford, Ph.D. Department of African American Studies Abstract In his 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl de- picts the iconic Oompa-Loompas as Arican Pygmy people. Yet, in 1971 Mel Stuart’s ilm Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the Oompa- Loompas are portrayed as little people with orange skin and green hair. In Dahl’s 1973 revision of this text he depicts the Oompa-Loompas as white. Finally, in the ilm Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Tim Burton portrays the Oompa-Loompas as little brown skin people. his research traces the changing depictions of the Oompa-Loompas throughout the written and ilm text of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory narra- tive while questioning the power dynamics between Willy Wonka and the Oompa-Loompas characters. his study moves beyond a traditional ilm analysis by comparing and cross analyzing the narratives rom the ilms to the original written texts and places them within their political and his- torical context. What is revealed is that the political and historical context in which these texts were produced not only afects the narrative but also the visual depictions of the Oompa-Loompas.