Chocolate War Analysis Essay

The Chocolate War is a young adult novel by Robert Cormier, and is, as I thought, listed as one of the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books in the 21st Century. It is written in the background of a Catholic high school, Trinity, telling the tale of the teenage students and their inner conflicts with each other and towards the school.

What made me wonder throughout the novel is the numerous references to the boys sexual frustrations and hormones, when it is a young adult novel. Indeed a bit inappropriate, this made me wonder as to why the author included such parts in the novel and what their relation to the plot or theme could be. Perhaps it is to highlight the fact that these boys are indeed boys, and in fact are growing boys, unsure of the world and society around them. Perhaps the author included these to show that the boys have an animalistic nature, as emphasized in the last part of the novel with the boxing scene. In contemplating these theories, it did make me as the reader feel sympathy for these boys in a little way, in that boys will be boys.

The two characters that stand out as the most vile and cruel are Archie and Brother Leon. These two could technically be father and son, as they are so alike in their manipulative and guiltless manner toward others. They both twist their words to twist their victims minds into obeying their every word, and they pull it off somehow. This is why Brother Leon and The Vigils work so well togetherArchie even mentions that he feels a sense of brotherhood with Leon. Halfway through the novel, while reading of their cruel daily actions, makes readers hope that they get what should come for them in the end, just as Obie puts it. It gives a sense of pleasure to the readers that they know that they will suffer in the end for their actions, because that is the just thing to doall books are meant to have a happy ending. It does not. Archie punishes Jerry for doing nothing wrong except being an individual; Brother Leon sells his chocolates, assuring a permanent position at the school, and inhumanely watches on the illegal boxing match. Everyone is a winner, except the good guys. The ending of the novel leaves readers shocked, cheated, and in awe of the injustice and cruelty. This was the initial reaction to finishing the novel, but after a while of contemplation, it made me think that it is a better ending than a happy one. It teaches readers a lesson, allowing them to realize on their own that this is an unfair ending and that people like Leon and Archie ought to be punished. It gives readers a feeling of hatred towards these characters, and indirectly informs them of how they should deal with them in their own lives.

The title The Chocolate War has many meanings as well. War can be portrayed in diverse aspects of war. There is war or competition in selling as many chocolates possible, war in to sell or not to sell chocolates, war between The Vigils and Brother Leon in selling his chocolates, and psychological war of all the boys of the school in general particularly Jerry. When I first saw this title, I suspected that it would be a childrens novel about kids in a fun-filled adventure in buying enough chocolate for themselves. It in fact turned out to be the exact oppositea very dark novel about war among high school boys. It is a war on the phrase, Do I dare disturb the universe? that was a title of a poster in Jerrys locker. While the rest of the boys of the school do not wish Jerry to, only Jerry believes that he ought to break the system. Jerry is the only one in the school that grows from being a teenager to an adult male when he finally chose to stand his ground against the school and The Vigils. It was a tragic thing to behold as Jerry eventually lost sight of this wonderful way of thinking when he gets beaten in the boxing match between him and Emile. The boys won the war against Jerry. The boys who had watched on and shouted to Kill, kill! to either competitor.

The Chocolate War is a shocking young-adult novel, with a deep profound message of disturbing the universe and breaking corruptionit is about the story of the world against one boy, and his defeat.