"The Chocolate War"; a modern YA "The Lord of the Flies"

The Chocolate War, embracing its dark tone sends an equally dark theme of the unbelievable cruelty of the human race. This novel is not the first nor will it be the last to attempt to portray the evil to be found within all of us and the situations, such as power and reputation that bring that evil out. I personally could not avoid comparing this novel, the ending in particular, to The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Both express the ways that youth can get carried away in a power struggle, always trying to “save face”, and the consequences that follow. The horrible cruelties shown in both novels are hard to accept, and though many would say that the murders in The Lord of the Flies makes it an ultimately more disturbing novel I have to disagree. I personally found The Chocolate War harder to digest specifically due to the character of Brother Leon. To me all the horrible happenings seemed (and I know it sounds cruel but….) like normal happenings in a high school; there will always be a hierarchy, there will always be those kids getting bullied and beaten up. What made it all so horrible was the way that Brother Leon let it all happened, encouraged it even. To me that is what ultimately made this novel so dark and evil, the way this teacher, a priest even, allowed all of this to happen in order to save his own reputation. This is an ultimate form of cruelty; letting those you are suppose to protect get attacked in order to conserve your own reputation. It is this interference, or more aptly lack of interference, from adults that makes this novel seem so much darker then The Lord of the Flies to me, sure in that novel the deeds are worse, but there was no one to interfere while in The Chocolate War there was and they didn’t.

-Chloe Janvrin