The Chocolate War book review

“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful”. But Jerry Renault struggled to breathe. He hardly opened his mouth; he scarcely closed his eyes at night.

The Chocolate War.  A real masterpiece brought to life in 1974 by Robert Cormier, who, with his finest but sharpest brushstrokes, painted a terrifying criticism, full of injustice and truth, able to leave a striking bitter flavour, a bad taste in the reader’s mouth, able to make people think and to question reality.

It all begins when young Jerry Renault enters a new school, Trinity High School. The boy was going through a rather tough time – his mother had died some months ago, he and his father did not have an easy life and he was unsuccessfully trying to make it in the football team. But this compassion for Jerry grows stronger when the Vigils, the school gang, make him carry out the assignment of refusing to sell his boxes for some days in the annual fundraising, voluntary chocolate sale, which was tradition at Trinity. The Vigils is constituted by a group of older students, led by Archie Costello, an intimidating, dangerous and manipulative boy in charge of deciding difficult, trouble-making assignments to be carried out by students.  There is a brusque change in the storyline when, once Jerry has finished his assignment, he decides to keep on refusing to sell his chocolate quota. This unexpected event raises concerns among the students at Trinity.

At first, he seems to be admired by other students when he rebels against the sale and its organizer, Brother Leon, who was replacing the headmaster’s role while he was ill. But he soon realizes that the Vigils, along with Brother Leon, are planning a counterattack against him. Jerry, who has done nothing wrong, starts being bullied, beaten up in some occasions, stalked and battered by Trinity students, until the entire school ends up conspiring against him. When we think things are coming to an end, he is given the chance to take revenge for what they had done to him in a boxing fight. But of course, things are not as easy as they seem to be… Archie Costello, the leader of the Vigils, is behind the event, and he unfairly plays his cards against Jerry again.

The end? Jerry ends up in a hospital half-dead. After everything he had fought and suffered. Not what you expected?

But who on Earth would not pity poor Jerry Renault, always trying to be true to himself, always trying to find his way, always unsuccessful…? Who on Earth could possibly imagine, or guess, the book’s ending? Not me, at least - and probably not anyone who has read the novel. Would you, or any other reader, think it is fair for him to end up inside an ambulance, after all that fighting, after all his struggles, after all...?

We would have not imagined Jerry, brave Jerry Renault, to end up like he did, – maybe because we are used to happy endings and all those ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ Disney tales they sell us- nor evil Archie Costello succeeding. This is probably the reason why the book is so strong and engaging. The ending of this book is like waking up suddenly, from a peaceful, relaxing dream on a beach of Hawaii, by a terrible thunderstorm. Shocking at first. Strange, confusing, unreal. Until you realize there is no beach. You are simply sleeping inside your bedroom and the window has just banged against the house wall in a night storm. Shocking, but real. That is the book’s effect.

The Chocolate War, which will be 40 next year, has received hundreds of prestigious and positive critics by writers and reporters, impressed with the author’s writing style, fluidity and force. On the other hand, it has been banned from many schools in the last few years. One assignment after another, teachers threatening students, bullying, innocent children beaten up, violence, offensive language, sexual context… This might be the reason why the film, based on the book, was completely modified, as even the ending was changed. But was it to avoid issues and criticisms about the film, or maybe in order to make it more commercial and sell more? Films should be faithful to the original books and they should have their own essence too but… Up to the point in which even Robert Cormier’s message is changed? Not too sure about that….

But, in spite of the criticisms received in the last years, adults and parents need to know that Cormier’s novel remains one of the best books for young people when it comes to examining moral issues. The book’s intensity will make people think. It will make people question their surroundings, it will drive them to compare the book’s plot with real situations inside the political and economic world, it will motivate them to change the world they live in.  That is the most valuable objective that the writer achieved.

What we must not forget is the fact that it is brilliantly written, using an alternative writing technique which engages the reader, especially teenagers, due to its vocabulary, colloquial language and moral problems with which they will identify with.  

This undoubtedly magnificent novel does not only have the objective of making people read and be entertained with its pages. It has the challenge of making society think. Of helping them to realize how threatening, unfair and cruel life is. Of  looking for justice and change.

María Domínguez del Castillo