Robert Cormier: The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War  by Robert Cormier

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books that fall into the young adult category.  The following is an award winning book by Robert Cormier called the Chocolate War.

            Jerry Renault is a student at Trinity High School, a private, all-male Catholic school in the New England area.  Jerry is on the freshman football team; quarterback.  His mother recently passed away, and his life has been off-kilter ever since, however even this event is nothing compared to what is about to happen.  Archie Costello is the Assigner in a secret school organization called The Vigils.  The Vigils maintain order among the students, giving them assignments to carry out, usually inflicting some humiliation upon teachers and students alike. The Vigils run an almost underground resistance to the teachers, and while the Brothers acknowledge their existence, they treat the Vigils as taboo and are unwilling to discuss the organization.  Archie is in a position of power among the Vigils because though he’s not the president, he is the one who gives the boys assignments.  Archie chooses Jerry to carry out an assignment, one that brings great humiliation and stress to Jerry’s life.  Every year at Trinity, there is a chocolate sale.  The boys are asked to sell twenty five boxes of chocolates at one dollar a piece.  This year, however, is much different and the stakes are higher.  This year, Brother Leon, the assistant headmaster, has asked the boys to sell fifty boxes at two dollars apiece, and has asked the Vigils and Archie to back the sale.  Archie reluctantly agrees.  Jerry is given the assignment to refuse to sell the chocolates for ten days, then at the conclusion of those ten days, he is to begin selling them again.  Contrary to the assignment however, Jerry continues to refuse to sell the chocolates.  This defiance of the Vigils does not go unpunished.  Jerry is harassed constantly; in the hallway at school, on the football field, even at his own house.  He is beat up by another senior named Emile Janza and a small group of kids, is illegally tackled on the football field from behind, and receives constant phone calls in the middle of the night.  In the end, Archie gives Jerry a supposed way out.  He assembles the full school, and sells raffle tickets.  Each ticket has a boxing instruction, and Jerry and Janza are to follow the instructions in the boxing ring.  They are not to defend themselves or fight back, but only do as the instruction say.  The fight riles the boys up, and nearly causes a riot as Janza viciously beats Jerry.  A ticket is finally drawn with an illegal move written on it, and Jerry defends himself, breaking the rules, and Janza takes advantage of it, pounding on Jerry.  The teachers finally arrive and put an end to the fight, however even though they know that Archie orchestrated the whole thing, Brother Leon lets him go without punishment.

            The Chocolate War has some elements of good and bad characteristics found in problem novels.

•       There were lots of characters who didn’t seem to help the plot move along.  In some cases, there were incidents that seemed pointless and served no purpose with the plot.  The scene with the junior class president deciding not to sell the chocolates didn’t really have a marked effect with the rest of the book.  The scene was graphic and inappropriate and didn’t ever seem to change events in the story.  The characters mentioned were only mentioned once and never seen again.The plot wasn’t believable, nor was it predictable.  I doubt the teachers at any school would really allow the amount of bullying and the Vigils especially to go on unpunished and even at times unnoticed.  The kind of vandalism and bullying the Vigils get away with seems unrealistic.
• The book did a good job at transporting readers into the characters’ problems and thoughts.  Jerry seemed like a real person with real problems, as did Archie Costello.  In general, the characterization was also good.  However, some characters like Archie seemed to be exaggerated.  He was obnoxiously lucky; the black box never really had any effect on him, and he was also lucky with the way everybody seemed to just follow him.
•  The setting is fairly solid, though a bit vague.  Cormier never really describes where in New England Trinity is, and some demographics of the area would have been nice to know.  For example, Trinity is a Catholic school, however it is never really specified how many of the students are Catholic, though it is made obvious through the ones that aren’t that the boys didn’t need to be Catholic in order to go to the school.
•  I didn’t really see a worthwhile theme.  In the end, the bully gets off completely free with no punishments of any kind, while Jerry is taken to the hospital with many serious injuries
•  The book really wouldn’t speak to young adult girls because it is mostly about boys and mostly deals with problems in the male mindset.  The only female characters in the story are vague and objectified; only there for the pleasure and enjoyment of the boys.
• I was not impressed with the book.  It was in many ways inappropriate. I personally would never recommend it to a student or peer.  There are scenes in the book that are a little explicit, and in general, those scenes do nothing for the book.  I also was not impressed with there being no clear antagonist and protagonist and no clear ending.  Archie gets off completely free with no punishment whatsoever and that is not acceptable.  A teacher should never condone that kind of action, and that's exactly what Brother Leon does.  In general, I was not impressed and will never suggest it in my future classroom.

Question: What does the ending of this book send out to readers, especially students who are getting bullied or students who are bullies?  There doesn’t seem to be any way out for them except to end up like Jerry; a victim, while the bullies like Archie seem to win.