The Chocolate War

"They don't actually want you to do your thing, not unless it's their thing too."

Every year Trinity Boy's School runs a chocolate sale. Each boy 'volunteers' to sell a quota of boxes in a fund-raising effort that is also a display of 'school spirit'. But this year is different, because new boy Jerry Renault has refused to take part. Initially he does so for ten days at the command of a secretive student group the 'Vigils' but once those ten days up he decides unilaterally to continue with his stance.

This book was first published in 1974 and has spent most of it's time since on the 'top 10 banned books list' in American schools because of it's content, in part sexual (masturbation), in part religious (it is a Catholic school and some of show more the teachers are good and some are bad) but mainly because it features bullying.

The book is relatively short but packs a punch. It features some of the best and worst facets of human nature. Jerry is idealistic, Archie is egocentric, Brother Leon is manipulative abusive whilst Goober who is privately supportive of Jerry's choice isn't willing to do so publicly and Carter has a false sense of control.

I found that I had a love/hate relationship with this book. I loved the way that it sucked me in, made me think and how I struggled to put it down. I hated the fact that Cormier felt the need to write it, I hated the fact that the story was realistic and represented real life for some students the world over, I hated the fact that Jerry's ostracization was easy to relate to, I hated the mob-like attitude of the other students, I hated the fact that even the 'good' teachers were willing to intervene, I hated how disturbing the norm was shown to be dangerous and brave but most of all I hated being asked if I would have been strong enough to say 'NO'. The book ended inconclusively despite my fervent hoping that somehow Jerry would gain some sort of reprieve and hating the fact that it had to do so to be realistic.

Personally I would have liked to have seen a little more in depth characterisation but despite being many decades beyond the book's intended market audience I found it a powerful and moving piece that made me sit up and think, as such I would highly recommend it. However, I doubt that I will read the sequel in the fear that it won't be as good. show less

A YA novel published in 1974. Highly praised, and equally controversial, the story involves a "secret" society known as The Vigils (which everyone knows about) in a Catholic high school where "leadership" translates to manipulation, humiliation and exploitation. Both students and faculty are motivated entirely by self-interest, and neither Christianity nor good ol' fashioned morality are evident anywhere. Youthful hi-jinks have a cruel edge, and the Vigils encourage their de facto leader, Archie, in his sadistic assignments which amount to continual hazing. An annual school-wide fundraiser takes on serious significance when Brother Leon announces that thisyear the price of a box of chocolates will be twice what it was in the past, AND show more the goal for the sale is to move 20,000 boxes, which is also a doubling of the previous goal. Brother Leon solicits Archie's help in bringing the Vigils on board with this daunting undertaking, so naturally Archie decides to "assign" one of freshmen to refuse to participate in the sale. All hell breaks loose when Jerry decides to continue his refusal past the one-week assignment.

This is a profound exploration of issues basic to adolescent life. Herd mentality; peer pressure; personal integrity; identity; conformity; respect for vs. blind acceptance of vs. rebellion against authority; sexual expression/fantasies/repression; bullying...no wonder there have been so many attempts to ban it. It's about REALITY, for cryin' out loud. Kids shouldn't be exposed to that. They can't handle reading about the kind of stuff so many of them deal with on a daily basis. My only quibble with this story is that there are NO responsible, caring adults in it. I think I understand the author's decision (and it must have been intentional) to leave them out. The school is a closed society, even though the boys go home at the end of the day; what happens at Trinity stays at Trinity. It's obvious that the boys are without sincere guidance at a critical point in their lives. (There are brief references to Jerry's Dad, who works nights, and whom Jerry doesn't want to worry, possibly included to explain the apparent overall lack of parental involvement in these kids' lives.)
A tough read, with an important message. Ironically, it might be most important for the adults who would ban it to get that message themselves. show less

Summary: Everyone knows that Trinity, an exclusive New England Catholic prep school, is really run by the Vigils, a secret group of students who dole out "assignments" to their fellow students. These assignments are usually disruptive or embarrassing pranks, but nobody dares defy the Vigils, and even the teachers look the other way. Freshman Jerry Renault is still dealing with his mother's death, but all he wants is to get through classes and make the football team. But he soon draws the attention of the Vigils, and is given an assignment: refuse to participate in the mandatory fundraising chocolate sale. This puts him right in the line of fire from the particularly sadistic teacher organizing the sale, so Jerry should be relieved when show more the Vigils order him to start selling chocolate a few weeks later. But for some reason, Jerry continues to refuse, and that's when the real trouble begins.

Review: I read this for Banned Books Week, as it's been one of the most frequently challenged/banned books almost every year since it came out in the 70s. I can see why this book is assigned - it's a realistic look at bullying/hazing in a boys' school that would provide an interesting springboard for classroom discussion on the topic. It also has aged really well - there's a few bits with hippies in the park that date it, and of course the prices make it obvious the book was written several decades ago ("But no one will buy a candy bar for two whole dollars!!!") - but the situations and the motivations are (sadly) just as applicable today as they were in the 70s. It's also immediately apparent why it's been challenged - there's some frank references to masturbation, although nothing particularly explicit, some violence (the book is about bullying, after all, and some of it is physical bullying), plus it doesn't paint a particularly flattering portrait of authority or Catholic schools. (There's also some "curse words", but of the "crap" and "damn" variety, which still scandalize the characters.) Personally, I don't think any of these things make it inappropriate for high school reading - on the contrary, it presents what I imagine is probably a pretty realistic view into the mind of a high school boy.

But, while I certainly wouldn't ban this book, I also don't know if I would assign it. First, while the references to sex and masturbation didn't bother me in and of themselves, I was put off by the fact that this book almost entirely lacks female characters, and the women that do show up are only there to be ogled and serve as fuel to the boys' masturbatory fantasies. But more than that, I had a problem with the message of the book. Jerry has a "Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?" poster in his locker that serves as a central theme of the book. But by the end, it becomes apparent that Cormier's answer to this question is "No, not unless you want the crap beat unrelentingly out of you." I don't necessarily need my books to have a happy ending, and I realize that the plucky underdog doesn't always win, but I found this book to be pretty bleak and ultimately kind of hopeless. Someone at my book club pointed out that this might be a generational thing, that in 1974 we were at the tail end of the Vietnam War, and maybe the "plucky underdog" mentality wasn't the prevailing attitude at the time, which was an interesting point I hadn't considered. But still, it led to me ultimately not really enjoying the reading experience.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the writing. Cormier's got an excellent way with description, and can craft a beautiful sentence. But the flow of this book was odd, jumping from character to character - mostly Jerry and Archie, the de facto leader of the Vigils, but also a number of secondary characters. This style isn't normally an issue for me, but in this case, whole pages would be given over to the backstory of a newly-introduced narrator… who in a few more pages would disappear, never to be heard from again. Distracting, to say the least. Overall, it was an interesting read, but not one I particularly enjoyed or am ever likely to revisit. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Eh. It's short enough that it's a quick read, and I can see how it would make a good read for a class discussion, but as a read-for-pleasure book, it was not my cup of tea. show less

Wow, a YA novel that doesn't condescend to its readership! I was really impressed by this novel -- by the fine use of language as much as the plot and characterization. There were some minor holes in motivation, but the story worked anyway, for the most part. I have to admit, though, I was pretty shocked by the conclusion, which was bleak and remorseless even by adult literary standards. While I appreciate the dark ending's refusal to tie up the book's issues into a tidy package, I did feel it left a lot of open questions that should probably have been addressed. I admit I actually wondered if I was missing a few pages, since the story seemed to break off at such an abrupt, almost random place.

The abrupt ending was the only off note of this book for me. That aside, Cormier does a brilliant job of tapping into that boys' high school environment - part Lord of the Flies, part A Separate Peace. There are the teachers - the Brothers - none of whom provides a decent role model and more than one of whom is downright menacing (i.e. Brother Leon). There are the Vigils, a secret group of students; Archie, though he isn't the president, is the mastermind who comes up with "Assignments" for other students, and who holds the power. This power is held in check only through the black box, which holds six marbles - five white, one black. If Archie draws the black marble, he must complete the Assignment in place of the student/victim. show more However, Archie's luck has been good so far, and his confidence in his luck is such that the black box does not provide much of a check on his power at all.

The plot centers around one defiant act - Jerry Renault refuses to take part in the school-wide chocolate sale. After some time it is revealed that his refusal is part of an assignment from the Vigils, but even when they reverse the assignment and order him to begin selling the chocolates, he still refuses - standing up to the Vigils and to the intimidating Brother Leon. Jerry's mother recently died from cancer, and his father works different shifts at a factory and is often unattentive, though not uncaring. Jerry is alone, save for fellow student and football player Roland Goubert, a.k.a. The Goober.

The Goober, however, is a conflict-averse, peace-at-all-costs type, even when that cost is not coming to Jerry's defense, leaving him alone at the mercy of the Vigils, the Brothers, and the student body at large: "The Goober started to step forward in protest. He had only sold twenty-seven boxes, damn it. He had stopped at twenty-seven to show that he was supporting Jerry, even though nobody knew, not even Jerry. And now the whole thing evaporated, and he found himself sinking back into the shadows, as if he could shrivel into invisibility. He didn't want trouble."

As the story draws to its climax, Archie ropes in another student, Emile Janza. He uses psychology to manipulate Janza, using him as an instrument against Jerry: "That's why he blew up. If you want to get under a guy's skin, accuse him of being something he isn't. Otherwise, you're only telling him something he knows." Jerry, in the end, is badly beaten, and though he has maintained his defiance throughout the ordeal - taking inspiration from a poster in his locker that asks, "Do I dare disturb the universe?" - his resistance finally crumbles. He tries to tell the Goober, who has come to his rescue after the fact, "They tell you to do your thing but they don't mean it. They don't want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too. It's a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don't disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say."

All in all, The Chocolate War presents an extreme picture of the bullying behavior that is now getting more attention in schools. Unlike many young adult novels, there is no happy ending and no indication that life is fair or that the good guys win; instead, you're worried about what further damage the bad guys are going to do when they leave high school and are loosed upon the world. show less

I have loved Robert Cormier since I found his book Fade hidden in the back corner of my school library 27 years ago. His young adult novels deal with real things that real teens deal with. He doesn't hold back and he doesn't surgar coat. And in The Chocolate War, he captures the evil vile terror that teens can inflict on each other and how hard it is to stand up against the crowd. It left me chilled and glad that my son escaped the harrows of school without a major incident, although not immune to the cruelty of his classmates. My heart breaks for every child that must face the insitutional injustices of school.

People tell me YA fiction needs to keep branching out. Teens demand the supernatural and violent and sexual situations because those are the desires and realities that today's teens face. Well, in 1974, this seemingly simple story of a boy who refuses to sell chocolates morphed into a multi-layered tale of friendship, peer pressure, violence, sexual pressure, betrayal, evil, courage, authority... and it's just about a private school filled with boys. I think that a story that seems to be about one thing on the surface can really be about a dozen things underneath. I think this book accurately captures many of the mindsets that teenage boys encounter while going through school and life.

I think that making a stand alone can disturb the show more universe. show less