Summary

[Sam]

The Chocolate War is in many ways like CBHS. The novel is about Jerry and starting a new school. Jerry’s’ mom died when he was little and he lives with his dad in a small apartment. His dad is a pharmacist so he works late therefore Jerry is usually alone when he gets home. Jerry tries out for Quarter Back for the freshman football team at Trinity. He gets knocked down a lot which could be a metaphor for all of the times he has gotten hit with a challenge in life. One of his big challenges is a group at Trinity called the Vigils. They are a group of students that run the school and make kids do certain things. They make Jerry refuse to take the boxes in the annual chocolate sale. Each kid is supposed to accept boxes of chocolate and sell them to help raise money for the school. When his math teacher, Brother Leon, calls Jerry’s name to accept the box of chocolates he refuses them like he is supposed to. Jerry decides to take a stand and not sell them even after his assignment is over because he does not want to sell the chocolates. He gets tormented for it but in the end he stands his ground for what he believed was right.
One of the members of the Vigils, Archie, gets very upset with him for not taking the box of chocolates. I like Archie because he is not the official leader of the Vigils but, he takes control of the group like he is. Archie knows how to manipulate people. At the end he manipulates Emile, the tough and cool kid, and Jerry. He makes them fight each other and he sells tickets with it. There is also a raffle and it sells the boxes Archie refuses. This is what I really love about the book is because of his way of thinking to get what he wants. One thing I did not like about the book was the ending. It was not a very good ending because it just abruptly ended with them in a room. Overall, The Chocolate War was a great book about standing up to people and manipulating but, it could have been improved if it had a better ending.