The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier

Of all the books on the list of books to study in the childrens literature course this one struck me as "the boy book" (which is not a complaint as such but there may be a complaint over the general lit course coming). Female characters are there as sex objects, nothing more and I'm pretty sure they speak less than 5 words thoughout the story.

It's a book that I have never read before. It was the second option in high school when my all girls class had to read "boys books" our teacher assigned this one or the Lord of the Flies. I got Flies and from what I heard from the others in the class they sounded like they wanted Flies rather than Chocolate War so I didn't bother looking into it.

The Chocolate War is the story of an all boys Catholic high school complete with sadistic priests, secret societies and hazing rituals that get out of control quickly. Each year students of Trinity need to sell a quota of fund-raising else they get into trouble from their teachers and the secret society. It is the story of one boys rebellion against the system that treats him and his freshman classmates unfairly. Jerry Renault is assigned by the "Vigils" to spend 10 days refusing the quota of chocolates that he's supposed to sell. On the eleventh day he's supposed to agree to sell. But he refuses on principle. At that point the rest of the boys at the school turn on him. From the grudging respect he is initially given from the rest of the school boys to when he pushes to far and they turn on him and things turn even worse for Jerry.

Caught in the mess of his own making is Archie the head of "The Vigils" who initially assigns him the task of refusing the chocolates and then has to deal with the consequences when students begin to pull out of the sale and follow Jerry's lead. Archie is held responsible by Father Leon. The acting head of the school who is cruel, and hard on the boys. He is almost sadistic in nature and takes pleasure in picking out boys to humiliate and bully each day.

Jerry's actions illuminate the corruption that underlies everything in the school. It is insidious and running through every aspect of school life.

The ending of the story is sudden and horrific. I'd be interested in reading the sequel to see how it goes but it leaves you wondering if Jerry is going to survive the ordeal he has faced.