The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier, depicts a story of a teenage boy named Jerry struggling to fit the characteristics of the social norm. As the story unfolds, you see Jerry battle his fear of isolation by conforming to his peers. As the battle continues, Jerry faces the moral dilemma of abandoning his values to fit in or defy their constraints and be isolated. Jerry soon starts to reach a level of a mature state until he gives in to something he truly doesnt agree with doing. From Trinity High School to the Vigils bullying, Jerry reaches a new level of maturity and firm beliefs.
As the book begins, Jerry starts to compare himself to people he meets in his local town, which may introduce the idea that Jerry fears who he truly is. Jerry starts to experiment to attain his identify and make a long-term commitment to finding it. One of the encounters occurs while he is waiting at the bus stop and looks at the people known as hippies or drop-outs. Jerry cant believe how they show their individuality and be what they want to be without caring what anyone else thinks of them. Everyday Jerry had stared at them, taking it all in, until one day at the bus stop he is confronted by one of the hippies. They question Jerry about why he stares and then the hippie becomes very annoyed which makes him refer to Jerrys life as being more boring than his own. You know whose subhuman, man? You. You aresquare boy. Middle-aged at fourteen, fifteen. Already caught in a routine. Wow (20). This causes Jerry to question himself and makes him feel like he has to change the daily routine that makes up his life.
Another moral dilemma in Jerrys life in his very own father. Jerry has to use emotional autonomy to get over the emotional hurdles and setbacks that the relationship with him and his father is causing. Following Jerrys mothers death of cancer, his father seemed to have great control on his life, covering up the anger that he had felt. Jerry had always wished to have the same strength and control to not show how he really felt unlike his father. All the anger that he never learned to cover up drove out all the sorrow that he felt from his mothers death and as days turned into weeks his father began to act as if he were a puppet. This display of his father showed exactly what the so called hippie had explained to Jerry the day before. Jerrys father had seemed as if he had stepped into someone elses shoes and was a completely different person now; especially towards Jerry. In connection to Jerry, he feels as if is life is duller and nothings seems to make him as happy as he was before. One day before school, Jerry looks in the mirror and sees the man that he doesnt want to becomehis father. now he could see his fathers face reflected in his own features. He turned away. He didnt want to be a mirror of his father. The thought made him cringe. I want to do something, be something. But what? (53). Between the hippie and Jerrys father, Jerry just wants to become something theyre not. Unlike them, Jerry wanted to accomplish something for himself instead of being the puppet-like image of his father.
After Jerry realized that he looked like a mirror image of his father, the only thing he really seemed to enjoy was football. In football, Jerry could be his own person and had control of what he wanted to do. While playing the sport, he gained pride in himself and dignity on the field; something that he could only feel when he was doing the thing he loved the most. Trinity High School didnt only come with football, but also came with the Vigils, which were the so called leaders of Trinity. They were a secretive group, but were well-known by almost everyone in the high school. When Jerry came to Trinity he was the one that was about to make the small dent in the Vigils system by denying them, but also the Headmaster, Brother Leon and the high school itself. During Trinitys annual chocolate sale, Jerry was given as assignment by the Vigils to not accept to sell the chocolates for ten days. He follows the assignment and does as he is told but after the assignment is over, things start to get crazy. Jerry felt that if he continued to refuse the chocolates after the assignment was over, he would be standing up for himself instead of doing what other people wanted him to do. Jerry uses fidelity to find a cause to be true without obeying others and values what he does. In this step in Jerrys life, he is fed up with what everyone else wants of him and becomes something that he wants to be. Trinity students start to view Jerry as a person to look up to and some follow because they feel as if they need to follow Jerrys lead. For a moment Jerry is regarded as a hero of some sort to Trinity and in the next fleeting moment the tables are turned on him.
At this turning point for Jerry, Archie Costello, the conductor of the Vigils, told Jerry to accept the chocolates of there would be consequences. He doesnt give in and feels that if he has made it this far there is no way he can give up now. The Vigils bully and harass him by prank calling and vandalizing his belongings. When Jerry is experiencing these things he has to tell himself, Im Jerry Renault, and Im not going to sell the chocolates (149). He knows he is in too deep for the harassing and bullying to just disappear and a numb feeling takes over his body. Now the students at Trinity go from admiring him to despising him, which shows how much the Vigils truly run the school. This makes Jerry feel invisible in school and the one thing that make him happy the most, football, was soon pushed aside and not as important anymore. The one person who was still following in Jerrys footsteps, Goober, his only companion and true teammate in football, quits the team and begins to be pushed around by the Vigils just like Jerry. At this point in the book Goober has identity confusion, which leads to isolation from the Vigils because he wants to be who he wants to be not what the Vigils want him to be. When the final act of bullying occurs it totally pushes Jerry over the edge. Emile Janza, one of the tough guys at school, calls Jerry a queer and fairy which makes Jerry flip out. Emile tries to provoke Jerry to fight, but Jerry knows if he were to hit Emile he would be giving in to the bully. He didnt want to return the grammar school violencehe didnt want to fight for the same reason he wasnt selling the chocolates, he wanted to make his own decisions, do his own thing, like they said (153). Jerrys outrage promised him he could beat Emile in a fight, but he didnt want to give in to something he truly didnt want to do. The biggest mistake that he makes is when Archie asks Jerry to participate is a boxing match with Emile to make all the chocolates disappear for him. In the end jerry is beaten terribly and defeated by Emile, causing all the control he thought he had on his life to slip away in an instant. Even though Jerry thought as if his life was turning around, it all went back in the wrong direction.
With all the struggles Jerry went through in his life, he had the faith to get through them all. When the time came, Jerry was so close to making the right decisions, but he just couldnt seem to act upon them. Was Jerry becoming the image he saw in the mirror? Or had he progressed to that mature state he was trying to reach? He may have become that mature person by taking the fight and sticking up for what he believed in but he was being like his father by hiding his true feeling about the fight. Despite all the manipulating and bulling, Jerry seems to reach that mature state and become the individual person he wanted to be. In the same way though, Jerry learns that leading a routine life like him father may not be as bad as it seems.
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