Finale of The Chocolate War

I could tell from the beginning that this book wasn't headed for a happy ending. There was something about the overall tone of the novel that suggested a bleak message. Maybe it was something about Archie's arrogant sense of control. I could tell that he was either going to fall or he was going to come out on top. Of course, I couldn't help but root for the former, because I don't like watching someone being manipulative and playing with other people's lives.

Then I got to thinking. Why is it exactly that Archie, Emile, the Vigils, and Brother Leon are perceived as villains? They are certainly placed in an antagonistic role in relation to Jerry Renault. But each one of these characters believe that they are doing something right. Although Brother is so insistent to sell the chocolates for a selfish reason, he is also convinced that he is teaching the boys how to survive in the world. He is supplanting the idea that they are working for the good of Trinity's.

Archie and the Vigils practice their politics and influence in order to keep the freshmen and the other students in their respective places in the order of the school. They are the ones that keep the order going from year to year and they keep it going because it seems to work. The mentality of power and submission is meant to train the students for the real world.

We were given the challenge to examine how the high school is a microcosm representing the rest of society. One of the main metaphors of the entire novel is the sentence on Jerry's poster that says, "Do I dare disturb the universe?" Jerry wants to disturb the universe of the world and he wants his own universe to be disturbed so he doesn't end up living a dull, day-to-day life like his father whom, we may say, has already conformed to his role in society.

There is an important moment in the book where Jerry begins to question his rebellious actions when the harassment that the Vigils are putting Jerry through begin to affect his father and Jerry rethinks his motivations: 'Compassion for his father welled in Jerry. Should he tell his father what it was all about? But he didn't want to involve him. His father had given in, taken the receiver off the hook, and that was defeat enough. He didn't want him to risk more' (209).

During the boxing scene, the reader finds that he/she has been placed in the seat of the audience in wanting to see justice done for the torment that Jerry has been put through. One wants to see the Vigils fall and, because of the violent overtones running rampant throughout the novel, have them fall through violence. Jerry figures this out after aiming a successful strike at Emile out of rage and vengeance and realizing that 'a new sickness had invaded him, the sickness of knowing what he had become, another animal, another beast, another violent person in a violent world, inflicting damage, not disturbing the universe but damaging it' (242). This is where I think one of the main messages of the novel comes in.

Because this microcosm nurtures this kind of violent, controlling society, violence is the only thing that will ever exist. Any action or reaction of a member of this kind of society will revolve around violence. And the worst part is that humans will only repeat this pattern over and over without any change or reprieve in sight. The only way to stop the cycle is to meet violence with peace. The only way to cure the ills of society is for people to look at one another as equals rather than enemies to be lauded over and oppressed. This book may not have the happiest of endings, but it teaches a powerful lesson in terms of how people should treat others and be treated with respect.