The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

It is not often you read a book where two of the main characters grow in such a way that they were better off at the beginning of the book. But that is my take on what happens in The Chocolate War.

Trinity High School is not really run by the monks who teach there, though they do have control over the students. Trinity is run by a group of student - juniors and seniors - know as The Vigil. The Vigil assigns students to tasks and pranks during the school year. No one would dare refuse the order to do something, no matter how crazy.

One student, Goubert, is told to remove all of the screws from the furniture in one classroom. Another, Renault, is told to refuse to sell chocolate for ten days. Once the ten days are over, he is supposed to sell his quota of chocolate like all other students. But he refuses to sell chocolate after the ten days. Now The Vigil must do something or others will begin to refuse their influence.

What started out as one student standing up for himself, with only a single friend to support him, turned into a war. Renault is attacked, taunted, and made an outcast. Goubert is so disgusted by the actions at his school that he quits football and any other voluntary activity. Renault ends up in an ambulance.

The interesting thing about this book is that the bullies don't seem to receive any punishment for their actions. Two students are broken and will never be the same, but nothing is done about it. If Cormier's intent is to make readers think about how this is wrong, then he has succeeded with this reader. The book left an unfinished, disappointed feeling in me. Any book where the revenge on someone it to tease him and call him queer is not my idea of progressing social ideas.

Cormier, Robert. (1974). The Chocolate War. New York: Random House.