"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

Second Read

I read Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War" in eighth grade while on vacation. I had run out of books to read and found myself lost without a book in my hand while waiting to board an airplane on the way to my final destination. So upon browsing the shelves of the airport convenience store loaded with magazines and books with various titles and subject matters, I settled on "The Chocolate War"...and I hated it. I didn't see the point in the book. I didn't understand how it got the reviews on the back cover that it had. I just didn't like it.

Now, upon giving it a second read for class I was open to having a different experience with the book since I was a few years older and have had some experiences I hadn't had when I first read it as well as having a different perspective on life due to those experiences. I will say that giving the book a second read after a long period of time, I'm liking it a lot better and can see the things I couldn't understand then because I hadn't experienced them (like Catholic high school) and that now having had that time to experience them and look back on those experiences I can relate a lot better to the characters then I could as an eighth grader of a Catholic grade school.

Kaylin

Death by Diorama

It really is not The Chocolate Wars fault but I absolutely hate this book. My fifth grade teacher handed it to me unceremoniously. She, in all likelihood, had no idea how to deal with an avid reader like myself. It was book report season and everyone needed a book, the fact that I had read the majority of the books she brought was clearly my fault. That was the death knoll for this book the book report. I had no desire to read this book, let alone make a pitiful diorama that would show the world just how terrible I was at arts and crafts. This project was meant to encourage students to read I am sure. For me though it was these kinds of projects that turned me off from the books on which they centered. The Chocolate War was the last “young adult” book I read until high school. Even now as I reread it I cannot enjoy this book that might otherwise be perfectly enjoyable.

I am concerned with the fact that children do not read, but I think that people tend to oversimplify the solution, and suggest only that students should be given more YA novels, or should be able to choose their novels. While these are great solutions it does not absolve teachers from the need to create engaging projects and assignments that encourage reading.

I have been reflecting a lot on how this novel, ruined by a terrible assignment, affected me as a reader. I am lucky I already loved to read so it did not shut me down from reading as a whole. It ended up shutting me off from a section of reading that I might have otherwise enjoyed. I began associating YA literature with cheesy art projects and plots reducible to dioramas. These projects become the image associated with the genre as a whole; simplistic characters that can be represented by a drawing, and themes that can be reduced to titles. These projects are not fair to the genre, and probably are not fair to The Chocolate War, but even now that is the only image of the book I can see, a pathetic cardboard diorama.

-- Meaghan Myers

Disturbing the Universe

The theme of The Chocolate War is a very common one in human history: violence against dissidents. For a reason that is never completely explained Jerry defies the natural order of the school. The reason that Cormier does this is to show readers what typically happens when people "disturb the universe".

I believe that Cormier was trying to warn the youth about what happens when you start using violent protest as a form of dissent: you lose. During the decade before the writing of this book there is a very evident trend in protests. Non-violent protests achieved their goals and violent protests did not.

Some of the historial events that Cormier may have been drawing upon were the difference between the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War Protests.

On the whole Civil Rights Protests were largely non-violent.  They became effective when they found national media because people didn't like police beating non-violent political dissidents.  The Civil Rights Movement was very successful in that respect as the Civil Rights Act was made into law in 1964.

The Vietnam Protests had the sigma of being violent.  On a regular basis protesters broke windows and threw rocks at police.  These actions hindered their effectiveness because national government doesn't like it when you challenge them with violence.

I believe that this is what Cormier was trying to say by writing the boxing match as the climax of the book.  If a dissident group is ever tricked into using violence as a form of protest against the larger group they will not be successful in the same way that Jerry was beaten to a pulp in the boxing match.

I don't like that the ending of this book is so dark.  Jerry defies the school, Jerry gets is bones broken.  It's a rather authoritarian message that doesn't promote the productive dissidence we need to make the world a better place.

- Jason McCoy

Passive Participants

“Nobody wanted trouble, nobody wanted to make trouble, nobody wanted a showdown…most kids wanted peace at any price.” – The Chocolate War (p.48)

If you’re lucky in middle school and high school, they talk to you about bullying or sexual harassment, and then they talk with you after an incident as well, but who really talks about the way we psychologically manipulate one another. Who really talks about this layer of bullying that entrenches the physical, but exists just as equally on its own?  You’re picked last in gym class—classic example—but there shouldn’t have even been a line-up. Your teachers first set-up a system that then enabled your peers to weigh, measure, and judge you. A kid jumps in front of you in a line for lunch, at the store, when you’re waiting for tickets and you grind your teeth or squeeze your fist, but to what end? They say not to rat out someone else because it’s all about the team or it’s all about the school or it’s all about something that in a few years from now doesn’t really matter (if it ever really did). We take the looks that define what we’re supposed to wear, the curriculum that says what we’re supposed to learn, the organization that says what we’re supposed to think, and then all the pain, torment, and suffering when we don’t quite fit. We take it all silently. Victims. Speechless? Voiceless. Peace at any price? Do we really believe that being all twisted up inside, that feeling unwelcome, unordinary, ridiculed is peace?

Silent victimization maintains the system and then the systems maintain those systems until we’ve trapped ourselves into a process that sets group mentality against individuality. We’re in a state where we’re more likely to help others when there’s no one else around. We bully ourselves. There’s a group like the Vigils in all our schools and companies, and we’re all involved, passively participating in all the psychological posits and positions.

Did we ever think about saying no to selling the box of chocolates? Damn it, why not?

Danielle Maxwell