The Sign by Ace of Base is about... Satanism??!!

Okay, hear me out on this one. The song The Sign by Swedish band Ace of Base is totally about Satanism, or some kind of dark religion. It's obvious if you just think about it, but I'll still go over it with you. Let's take a look at the lyrics to start with (I got these lyrics from Genius). Please keep in mind that this post is not an endorsement of Satanism.

CW for white supremacy

The introduction:

Whoa, oh, yeah

So the very first thing we hear from the singers is a vocalization to summon the dark lord. Satan doesn't communicate with just words (though he does understand every human language as well as some non-human ones) so to awaken Satan and bring him to the earthly realm, one must convey their motives through emotional vocalizations that will reach him.

The first lines:

(Ah) I gotta new life
You would hardly recognize me I'm so glad

We are introduced to the speaker of the song. She tells us that she has a 'new life', which means that she has just been initiated into the cult of the devil and has been 'reborn' in a dark baptism. She has become a totally different person from the experience and is reveling in her newfound servitude to Satan.

Continuing:

How could a person like me care for you?
(Ah) Why do I bother
When you're not the one for me
Ooh, is enough, enough?

She is looking back at her old life before initiation and wondering how she ever put up with it. She is addressing a 'you' in the song, but who is this mysterious person... or being? On a surface level, it might seem like she is addressing a former lover- and this might be the case- but she also could possibly be addressing God, or maybe Jesus Christ or simply some higher being that contrasts with the dark being she now has pledged allegiance to. If she is addressing a former lover, then it seems that they haven't joined her in Satanism and stayed with their God. She realizes that God/her lover are not the key to happiness and she has had 'enough' of this life, which is what leads her to Satanism.

The chorus:

I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes
I saw the sign
Life is demanding without understanding
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes
I saw the sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get you into the light where you belong...
But where do you belong?

Just what was the sign she saw? Possibly a sign that she and her lover were no longer right for each other. Possibly a sign that introduced her to the sinister mysteries of Satanism. The line 'life is demanding without understanding' has a double meaning. The first is that life is difficult and doesn't understand humanity's struggles. Human lives are filled with hardships and no reprieve. The other meaning is that if you don't have an understanding of how life and the universe works, then life will be difficult for you. With the first meaning, the speaker is struggling with the difficulties of life and is dissatisfied with God. With the second meaning, the speaker realizes that she can make life easier if she somehow gains an understanding of it. She sees a 'sign' and learns that she can gain this understanding by giving her self to Satan. The lyrics don't indicate just exactly what this sign is (and I think it's partly metaphorical), but we will take a look at it when discussing the album art and music video in a bit. Then there's the line about how 'no one's gonna drag you up to get you into the light where you belong'. Now, we usually associate light with heaven, God, and all things good and holy. However, the true name of Satan is Lucifer- which means both 'morning star' and 'light bringer'. Ironically, the Prince of Darkness himself is a being of light. The speaker tells the listener that they too can belong to Lucifer, but that they must willingly give themselves to him. She leaves the chorus asking the audience this simple question: where do you belong? She is urging the listener to question their lives of suffering under God and possibly to think about dedicating their lives to serving Satan.

The second verse:

(Ah) Under the pale moon
For so many years I've wondered who you are
How could a person like you bring me joy?
Under the pale moon
Where I see a lot of stars
Ooh is enough, enough?

The speaker sets the scene and brings us to night where she is lost in thought under the watchful eye of the moon. The nighttime is significant because between 3am to 4am is what is known as 'the Devil's hour' or sometimes as 'the witching hour'. This hour belongs to Satan because there is an absence of Christian prayers at this time of night. It would make sense for the speaker to question her devotion to God at what is possibly this time. She says that she's often 'wondered who you are', i.e. she wonders who exactly is God and 'how could a person like [him] bring [her] joy' when life is so full of suffering. She looks again at the pale moon and sees 'a lot of stars'. If you paid attention to the previous paragraph, you'll remember that Lucifer can also mean 'morning star'. It is the Devil's hour, which is super early in the morning, and sees stars i.e. morning stars. Here she has seen a metaphorical sign and has made up her mind to give herself to Satan.

For the next parts, she vocalizes 'oh' a bit more and then sings:

I saw the sign and it opened up my mind!
And I am happy now living without you
I've left you, oh-oh-OH!
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong

She then repeats the line 'I saw the sign' as the song is ending, leaving us on the final line of 'and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign!'

Here, the singer is reveling in her newfound life. She is happy to have left God or her Christian lover and is living it up in Satanism. The repetition of 'oh-oh-oh' represents an orgasm as she metaphorically gives her body to (has sex with) Satan to seal the pact. She repeats how she saw the sign and urges the others to give themselves to Satan as well, the repetition representing a grand celebration.


So, those lyrics were straightforward enough, let's take a look at the album art.

The first thing you no doubt notice- what is that symbol in the pupil of the eye? It's an ankh with a djed inside it. Let's take a closer look at these two symbols (I'm getting all this information from wikipedia).

The ankh is an ancient Egyptian symbol representing life, and in extension also representing air and water. Ancient Egyptian gods were often seen holding ankhs to symbolize their life-giving power. Moreover, ancient Egyptians believed that life was cyclical, like the setting and rising of the sun, the flooding of the Nile, the renewal of life after death. The ankh was eventually incorporated into Christian symbolism where it became the crux ansata, however the loop at the top became more circular. In the modern world, the ankh is sometimes used to represent African cultural heritage, as well as being a popular symbol amongst goths because I guess it was in some vampire movie in the 80s or whatever.

Let's talk about the djed now. The djed is another ancient Egyptian symbol, representing stability and is associated with the god of the dead and the underworld, Osiris. According to myth, Osiris was killed by the desert god Set by being tricked into a coffin where a tree grew around it and trapped Osiris in there and then a king took the tree and turned it into a pillar. Eventually, Osiris' wife Isis cut him out of the pillar and then consecrated it and it became the djed. So, like the ankh, the djed has connotations of renewal and rebirth. Also somehow it represents Osiris' spine, I don't get how when it's also the pillar he was cut out of? Whatever, not the point. Since it's related to the spine, it is by extension related to sex because ancient Egyptians thought semen was created in the spine. There's a theory that the djed along with the ankh and a third symbol called the was-sceptre all came together to represent the sexual organs of cattle.

So looking at all this together we can connect it to the lyrics of the song. First, the ankh and djed are pagan symbols. What do Christians hate? Pagans! The speaker in the song is turning away from the Christian God and giving herself to Satan or some other dark force, and this is symbolized by ancient pagan symbols. Moreover, both symbols having connections with renewing life, just like how the speaker in the song 'gotta new life' by giving herself to Satan. Then there's the sexuality aspect of the symbols, which represents the speaker's sexual union with Satan to receive her new life. (Revelation 18:2)

Now let's turn our attention to the birds in the album art. You're probably thinking that they're little white birds, that has to be good! It is not! Satan himself has been associated with birds in the new testament. In the parable of the sower, Jesus describes a farmer sowing his seeds when some fall on the path and birds came and ate them. Jesus then says that this represents "when anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart." So basically the birds = the evil one a.k.a. Satan. Also, the line I quoted also includes a bit about not understanding the message. This is eerily similar to the line in the song about how 'life is demanding without understanding.' The speaker flips Jesus' words about understanding God's message and turns it into understanding Satan's message. That's not the only passage in the Bible about birds. In Revelation it is written that Babylon becomes "a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird" (Revelation 18:2). So there's another connection between evil/the devil and birds.

Now what about that giant eye? There's a lot of symbolism with eyes, but the three most famous one is the mati a.k.a. the evil eye. The evil eye is an ancient Greek symbol that represents a malevolent glare that puts a curse on somebody. The Greek Fathers (influential theologians who established the doctrinal foundations of Christianity) cited the Devil as the source of the evil eye. The fact that the eye on the album art is blue definitely implies that it's meant to be the evil eye. But that's not all that the blue eye represents. One member of Ace of Base by the name of Ulk Ekberg was actually a neo-Nazi in his youth and with his old band Commit Suiside he wrote some super racist songs. It was Hitler's dream to purify the Aryan race until they were all  blonde haired and blue eyed. I don't think that it's too controversial to say that white supremacy is super evil and that means Satan would probably be cool with it. So the blue eye represents worshipping Satan and his white supremacist ways. Side note: it's super hypocritical that the dude is a white supremacist yet the song The Sign has reggae influence and they use Egyptian symbols and despite what Hollywood tells you, ancient Egyptians were not white.


The final piece of the puzzle is the music video. There's not too much to say about the music video since I covered most of the themes already, but I'll go over some aspects.

So I think the symbolism here is fairly obvious. We have the ankh-djed in the midst of hellfire, invoking Satan.

Here we have two Ace of Base members, Linn and Jenny Berggren, surrounded by ankh-djeds and wearing all black. Satan is the prince of darkness so his followers would naturally prefer to wear black. The two women are presenting themselves as Satanists.

Now we see the silhouette of a man waving a flag. The man is physically fit and stands like a soldier. This represents white supremacy fantasy by having the man resemble the Aryan ideal of an athletic white man loyal to his nation.

We also see the story of a couple sitting in a dark room and they appear to be breaking up. In this frame, the ankh-djed is floating between them. This symbolizes that Satanism is causing the divide between the couple and that the woman is moving on.

This next frame shows Jenny Berggren wearing a form fitting red dress in a room of men. She represents the sexual aspect of Satanism and appears to us as a temptress.

For this scene we have another band member, I don't know if that's Ulf Ekberg or if it's Jonas Berggren, and he's got his right arm outstretched and his left hand on his heart. The right arm represents Sieg Heil used by Nazis and the left hand represents him devoting himself to evil.

Next we see a man and a woman kissing each other passionately in front of a lone candle. This represents the sexual union of Satan and his followers.

Here we've got Linn again, still wearing black and dancing in front of hellfire surrounded by ankh-djeds. She is reveling in the Satanic ritual.

We go back to the couple in the room. The woman has seen the light and left the man behind, symbolizing the speaker leaving behind her Christian life and lover to follow Satan.

We see the ankh-djed again, this time in front of a golden screen. This represents the idea of Satan as a light bringer and the speaker having been metaphorically reborn in following him.

So overall, this song is clearly about Satanism. Ace of Base, you have a lot of explaining to do.

Masculinity The Chocolate War

Soooo I'm thinking this is going to be my last post analyzing The Chocolate War???? After this, I don't think I really have anything more to say. I copied and pasted all my posts into a google doc (including pictures) and it is 54 pages and 16689 words so needless to say I have said a lot about it. Well, for this post, I'm just gonna go through some elements that I've neglected in previous posts: the role of sports and of masculinity (and discussing power and control a bit more because that ties into masculinity).

CW for cisnormative language and homophobia

Let's take a look at good ole Trinity. The two biggest sports at the school are football and boxing, and ironically enough those two sports are total opposites from each other. Football is a team sport- it requires a group of young men to work together to overcome an opposing team. The game is slow paced, requires strategy and planning, as well as speed and strength. Boxing on the other hand is a one-on-one type sport, mano a mano, just two dudes being guys in the ring beating each other up. It's quicker paced, doesn't require teamwork, and may require some kind of strategy? I don't know, I don't know jack shit about boxing. Either way, it also requires speed and strength like football but is overall more intense. Both sports are highly dangerous, and players can often suffer from concussions and CTE. Moreover, both sports are seen as highly masculine. Sure, there's female boxers out there and I guess a female football league that I found on wikipedia but I've never heard of it before so whatever, I'm just trying to say that these are traditionally masculine pursuits more so than some other sports.

One interesting thing about The Chocolate War is that almost every major student character is on a sports team. Jerry, Goubert, Carter, Janza are all on the football team and Carter also boxes. Even Obie used to play football and regrets not going out for the team at Trinity. The only student that stands out is Archie, who hates sports and considers athletes to be stupid (side note, he doesn't exercise and eats chocolate like every day, kid's gotta be rotting from the inside). I've mentioned in previous posts that Archie is different from the other boys in that he's not a traditional manly man. He represents something scarier to the boys of Trinity than a typical violent bully- he's something that they can't understand and can't fight their usual way. Sports are pretty straightforward- go use your strength to crush the other guy, pretty straightforward. But you can't just go beat up Archie (well, you could but you'd have to answer to the other Vigils and you don't wanna go toe to toe with Carter). He's intelligent, a creature that uses wits and manipulation.

This failure of the traditional masculine fighting style is represented in the fact that Trinity's sports haven't won in ages, which is costing the school funding. Society at large values masculine pursuits such as sports and when schools fail to deliver, they are punished. It is this failure of masculinity kicks off the plot that turns a high school into a war zone.

However, this failure is also the source of strength in overthrowing the Vigils. Throughout the story, Jerry rejects the masculine ideals of violence and holds a peaceful protest. To the other boys, he seems emasculated (going back to my previous post talking about conformity where Jerry appears as the opposite of what young men should strive to be) and getting beat up and called gay is the straw that breaks the camel's back. He gives into violence but becomes further emasculated from losing the fight. Of course, I can't exactly blame him for giving in. What was he supposed to do? Just take the harassment and the beatings? Jerry was stuck in a lose-lose situation and was going to be emasculated either way.

This isn't the Vigils first time emasculating someone. They do the same with Goubert, though it takes far less to break him. Let's take a look at Goubert; he is "fifteen years old and six-one-and-a-half", he is highly athletic- an amazing runner and promising young football player- but he is also timid and sensitive. Already we see a dichotomy between masculine and feminine traits in him. Being summoned and given an assignment by the Vigils is what first breaks him. In chapter 8, immediately after saying his age and height, the narration remarks that he is "too old to cry" and that "he was ashamed and disgusted with himself." We've all heard the old adage 'boys don't cry', and Goubert has been firmly indoctrinated into that belief. His main motivation is the fear of being further emasculated by both the Vigils and Trinity, and this is what leads him to quitting the football and track teams and to stop giving his talents to Trinity, which he believes is "evil". When explaining his reasoning, Goubert tells Jerry that he "was crying like a baby" and that he sees "what [the Vigils are] doing to [Jerry]", and though Jerry doesn't quite understand it Goubert insists that Jerry give up on his rebellion before being further emasculated like he was.

Jerry too falls for the old boys don't cry belief, as I mentioned in my previous post there's a quote in the book where the narration states that "Jerry wished he could be as strong as his father, always in control, masking his sorrow and grief." Jerry pushes back against being emasculated in his own way- he doesn't ever show that the Vigils' harassment is getting to him. He remains 'strong' and doesn't ask for help from any adults in his life. Granted, no adults at Trinity would be able to help, but he makes no effort to tell his father or look outside of Trinity for support. Now, I'm sure that it's common for victims of bullying to be ignored by any authority figures, but regardless Jerry is avoiding telling any adults about it so as not to appear weak.

Now, Archie stands out compared to the other boys- he rejects traditional masculinity, he's the one doing the emasculating and doesn't fear it. Or does he? I think he actually does, but in a different way from the other boys. His fear lies less in being made effeminate or gay and more in being made into a child again. He often calls people 'kid' even if they are around the same age as him, and is unhappy being "a senior in a lousy little high school". Obie mocks Archie by having him meet int the gym knowing that Archie detests it, but it's not really successful in emasculating him. The only person who really intimidates him is Brother Leon, the one who is really in charge and a reminder that Archie is just a teenage boy. Archie himself is being emasculated and made to feel powerless so he exerts his own power on others to feel like a man again.

The movie depicts all this and adds in a homoerotic element as well. I discussed this more in depth in a previous post, but I'll briefly go over it here too because it plays into emasculation. While handing out assignments, Archie asserts his power by invading their personal space, touching them, and overall acting sexually aggressive to scare them. Naturally they are afraid of this, anybody would be, but it adds another later because to these boys, a man showing sexual interest in them puts them in a woman's place.

In the end, there's a grand show down in the form of a boxing match, bringing everything back round to sports. Archie's usual tactics of emasculating boys aren't working on Jerry, so he just falls back on a straightforward fight to emasculate him. In the book it works, in the movie it doesn't, but either way violence and conventional masculinity win.

And I think that's all I've got. I've said all I can about The Chocolate War and don't have anymore posts planned for it (until I get the sequel at least). Stay tuned for another blog post about something else.

Jerry's dreams in The Chocolate War (1988)

Kid has some freaky dreams!!! This is gonna be a pretty picture-heavy post by the way.

Bicon

So, in the movie Jerry has three separate dreams and then sees some dream-like stuff at the end. That is what we'll be discussing today. This is mostly movie specific because in the book, if I recall correctly, Jerry's dreams are only mentioned twice briefly in passing. Once, in chapter 28 where "he'd been dreaming of a fire, flames eating unknown walls, and the siren sounded" and then he woke up and the telephone was ringing. Then again in 32 where "the phone rang in his dreams all night long." Apart from those two times, his dreams aren't really explored (unless I'm forgetting something but whatever). I'm still gonna use some passages from the book to explain some of the themes a bit better though. Let's get into his dreams now.

Dream One:

Okay, I'm not sure if this is technically a dream or just Jerry remembering some stuff, but it's strange and dream-like so I'm counting it.

To set the scene: Yaz's "Only You" is playing in the background while Jerry is staring at himself in the mirror. It then transitions into a memory of him as a younger child playing a game of catch with his mother and father. He makes a pretty good throw that his mother catches, while his dad cheers behind her. She runs up to Jerry and hugs him, super proud.

I like how the kid looks nothing like older Jerry

Next, we see an image of a lone coffin on a football field in front of a goal post with a forest of dead trees in the background.

After that is an uncomfortably long shot of Jerry's mom as she lies pale and sick in bed, so deathly still that if she hadn't blinked I'd have thought it was a photo.

We go back to seeing Jerry staring into the mirror as the camera closes in on his face. His eyes are glassy, his jaw tense, mouth tight, and he is slightly shaking. The picture below doesn't really do it justice but the dude looks distressed. I'm going to come back to this in a bit.

What fifteen year old has a jawline that chiseled?

Then we're back at the football field. The coffin, goal post, and dead forest are still there but this time Jerry is standing in front of the coffin with his back turned to the camera and he is joined by three other men bowed over the coffin as well. These men are, in order: a doctor, a priest, and his father. It's this specific part that leads me to believe this isn't just a straightforward memory because that would be a pretty weird funeral.

There's a slight worm's eye view close up of the doctor as he looks down and says "there's nothing anyone can do." The camera pans over to the priest where he says "it's God's will." Finally the camera continues panning to Jerry's father who says "it's just life." Remember these words because we'll be coming back to them. The dream/memory ends there because the next shot is of Jerry watching his dad sleep on the couch and then they talk about how his dad's day was at the pharmacy and Mrs. Hunter left a casserole yada yada yada. You know what happens, why else would you be reading this if you haven't seen the movie?

So now that we've gone over each part of this dream let's examine it. 

I don't think the part where he's playing with his parents needs much explaining. He had a loving mother and his parents were happily married. He is reminiscing about his childhood, how much he loved his mother, and how playing an athletic activity was one way that he spent time with her.

The shot of the coffin in the field is most likely a reference to chapter 2 where Obie is looking out at the football field and notices that the "shadows of the goal posts definitely resembled a network of crosses, empty crucifixes." Even though that passage is about Obie, the director still probably read that and thought that the symbolism could be used for the movie in a way that would get across to the viewer better. It would be awkward in the movie to just have Obie comment that the goal posts look like crosses, so it's smarter to show the big white goal post acting as an actual cross at the funeral. So now it's twice that Jerry's mother is associated with sports- she played catch with him and now she's buried in a football field. 

Again, I think the close up of his dying mother is also pretty self-explanatory. She's sick! She died! It's also eerie. Her eyes are glazed over, her skin is pallid and clammy, her expression is blank and miserable. The shot lasts about 8 seconds, which doesn't seem that long but it's actually pretty long and uncomfortably so. The audience is forced to watch her suffer just like Jerry had to. 

Jerry is also watching himself suffer while staring into the mirror. In the book, there's a passage in chapter 9 describing how Jerry felt when his mother died- "Jerry was over-come with rage" and that "he was angry at the way the disease had ravaged her. He was angry at his inability to do anything about saving her" and then despite his anger "he did nothing except lie awake in the dark, thinking of her body there in the funeral home". I feel that in this shot Jerry's actor did a good job of getting that rage across without any yelling or screaming, just his body language showing that he's angry but holding it in. Because that's what a man does. Right before describing his rage, the narration says that "Jerry wished he could be as strong as his father, always in control, masking his sorrow and grief." Later in this post and in another post I want to talk about the concept of masculinity a bit more, but for now we'll leave it at this: Jerry is bottling up his emotions, trying to be a strong man, trying to make the memory of his mother proud. Men don't cry, men don't let their emotions control them, men only use logic, men hide their feelings to be strong for others because men are leaders. Or at least that's what the patriarchy would have him believe. 

Finally, that strange funeral. The shot has an eerie, surreal quality because obviously nobody would bury a person in a football field and then have only four people show up to the funeral. Maybe if this was a murder or something but it wasn't and now I'm getting sidetracked. Along with the set up being strange, the way the camera closes in on each man as he's speaking is disorienting. It's like they're looking down on us both physically and metaphorically. Moreover, the camera pans slightly too fast from man to man and it's dizzying. To me, this reflects the idea that Jerry felt disoriented when his mother died, like his whole world is moving too fast for him, and the men looking down on him reflects him feeling like a small child.

Each man's words are things that would be told to a child experiencing death for the first time. They're trying to explain to Jerry why his mother died and why awful things happen for seemingly no reason. Of course none of them can give him a straight answer or at least an answer he can accept. The doctor tells him "there's nothing anyone could do" trying to explain that it's nobody's fault and that fighting against it was futile. He exemplifies the feelings of helplessness that Jerry experienced. The priest tells him "it's God's will" which, in my opinion, is one of the coldest things you could say to a person, much less a teenage boy, about someone's death. He's already angry that she died and now you tell him that God wanted it? This sets up his issues with God and religion that I'll talk more about later. Lastly, his poor father telling him "it's just life." He represents an acceptance of death, but Jerry can't handle it. He's not ready to accept it quite yet and he's disappointed in his father for being so quick to accept it. As shown by his whole rebellion against the school and the Vigils, Jerry doesn't want to be someone who just accepts things the way they are, even if it's something he can't change like death. He doesn't want to be like his father in this regard.

I also want to make a quick comment on the song playing over all this. It's Only You by Yaz (or Yazoo if you're British). The song is just a simple song about wanting the love of someone who is not near to them. I don't think the song is super important in analyzing the dream but it was chosen for a reason and fits the theme of Jerry missing his mother's love. It's also the second Yaz song in the movie so maybe they just had a lot of their songs licensed already and went with it for that reason. I don't know.

So that's dream one, let's move onto...

Dream Two:

This dream starts out with a shot of Jerry's mother smiling and waving in bed. Despite her happy expression, she is nearly pure white and looks ghostly. She mouths something but I can't make out what, maybe it was 'good bye'? I'm not at all sure so don't quote me on that.

It then cuts away to a view of the full room- it appears to be a painfully white hospital room, the only color coming from outside the window where there's a blue and purple sky. There's a pale nurse putting the blanket over Jerry's mother's face. Jerry himself is watching, wearing a blindingly white shirt, and the nurse turns her head to stare at him.

This is kind of a vibe though??

Next, there's a flashback to Brother Leon bringing Bailey to the front of the class and 'accidentally' hitting him with his stick pointer thing.

Following that is a close up of Lisa, the girl that Jerry likes, saying "you're missing a lot of things, Jerry" (if you read the homoeroticism post then these words should be familiar).

Then Jerry and Lisa start making out while Jerry has on a black leather jacket. They're outside and the camera is quickly circling around them and soon a hospital bed creeps into the background and ominously looms there.

It switches back to Brother Leon in the classroom, but this time Jerry has taken Bailey's place in the front. Brother Leon hits him with the stick, this time less accidental, and all the students start clapping. They clap for a strangely long amount of time, and though music is playing over it you can still hear the sound of their clapping.

Then Jerry wakes up.

We gotta acknowledge the events that precede this dream sequence; Jerry's ten days of refusing the chocolates were up but he continued to say no anyway, much to Brother Leon's anger, thus the true beginning of his rebellion. I'm going to say one thing here that might not make sense until I go over the next dream. Jerry rebelling against Brother Leon and the Vigils is Jerry rebelling against God for killing his mother. That's why this dream begins with her. She's smiling and waving but she's so pale that it's terrifying as opposed to happy. The insanely white hospital room and the nurse's insanely white dress and Jerry's insanely white shirt all play with our idea of the color white. Normally, white is considered pure- brides, baptized children, and angels wear white. Heaven is often depicted as a paradise on white clouds. As a Catholic, Jerry is no doubt familiar with associating white with these religious connotations of white. However, white is also sterile, medical, and deathly. Hospitals are white, doctors and nurses wear white, ghosts are white. Jerry's mother just died from cancer so he must've been at the hospital often and surrounded by whiteness. He knows that heaven is white but so is death. To hearken back to what the priest in his first dream said: "it's God's will."  God killed his mother and that's all he knows. I'll talk about how God = Brother Leon/Trinity in the next dream.

Moving onto more of this dream first. Jerry dreams about Bailey being interrogated in front of the class. That's simple enough, he's thinking about how Bailey was singled out and nobody stood up for him and how he could just as easily be singled out.

Next, he dreams of Lisa and kissing her. Normal enough, he's a red blooded teenage boy and she's a pretty girl that showed interest in him. What's interesting is he's got on a leather jacket like hers. I mentioned in a previous post that she represents freedom to him. She doesn't play by anyone's rules, she hangs out with her friends and is free to express herself as she wants. In her, Jerry sees all the things he's 'missing' while he's stuck in the world of Trinity. It's the empty hospital bed in the background that trips me up. His mother isn't in the bed but she doesn't need to be, Jerry is still thinking of her. Now that his mother is dead he lacks a female influence in his life. It's just him and his dad at home and all the teachers at Trinity are men. Lisa acts as a replacement female influence for him. I don't mean that he's got like an oedipal complex or anything but it's true for a lot of people that how your parents love you is how you learn to love romantic partners. Poet Eduardo C. Corral has a poem called "Ditat Deus" where he talks about how he "learned to make love to a man by touching [his] father" and describes taking off his father's work boots for him, tracing the veins of his neck when he slept, and help him shave in the morning. He was shown by the ultimate male figure in his life how to love another man and this affected his romantic relationships his whole life through. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the memory of Jerry's mother, the ultimate female figure in his life, guides him in learning to love a woman.

The final part of the dream is when he has taken Bailey's place in the classroom. Here, Jerry predicts the harassment he'll have to face for defying Brother Leon and the Vigils. The students all clap for Brother Leon and enjoy seeing Jerry put in his place. Jerry knows that he'll be alone in this venture.

Dream Three:

This is the last actual dream Jerry has and he has it right after being beat up by the kids that Janza hires and right before he's shunned at school after the rumor that he's gay spreads.

Speaking of being gay, the first image we see in the dream is Archie speaking with Lisa's voice. If you read my post on homoeroticism in the movie then you'll know what I've already said about this particular bit, but I'll go over it again in a bit.

The next thing we see is Goubert speaking in Brother Leon's voice. He says "only God is perfect, Jerry. Do you compare yourself to God?"

After him is Brother Leon in both the voice of Jerry's father and the voice of the priest from the first dream. He says "Mrs. Hunter left a casserole. It's God's will."

Then, it's Jerry's mother speaking with the voice of the boy that talked to him on the bus earlier. She says "boy, you've got guts, Renault. You know that?"

Jerry's father is the last one to speak in a mismatched voice. He talks in Goubert's voice and says "I'm quitting the team, Jerry. I was crying like a baby."

The dream moves on to show Jerry moving down his hallway (I say moving because it's not quite walking- it's almost like he's floating but we can't see his feet) and his father is on the phone at the end. He offers Jerry the phone and says "it's your mother, Jerry. She's proud of you."

Then we cut to an image of a blood red moon hanging above the school bleachers.

The last part of the dream and, in my opinion, the strangest is Jerry in uniform standing at the front of a classroom behind a podium and Archie dressed in a monk's robe is next to him. Jerry has the teacher's pointer stick thing and hits Archie with it. Archie remains calm and turns his face to the camera and smiles. It's hard to read Jerry's expression behind him, but he might be smiling?

He looks good with his hair pushed back!

Playing over all of this is pleasant classical music.

So, let's go over the people he knows speaking in mismatched voices. I discussed in a previous post how earlier in the movie Archie used sexuality to intimidate Jerry and how this moment in this dream has Jerry combining a girl he's sexually/romantically interested in with a boy who sexually intimidated him. The wires got crossed, or it's implying Jerry is bisexual/bicurious. Either way, it shows Jerry is sexually confused.

Goubert then has Brother Leon's voice, saying the words that Brother Leon said in the classroom when he was interrogating Bailey. Previously, Goubert encouraged Jerry to end his rebellion and just sell the chocolates. Here, it seems that Goubert is warning Jerry about how he's going to be persecuted like Bailey if he keeps up this fight.

Then we get to Brother Leon. I said earlier that God = Brother Leon/Trinity and this is where I'm getting my evidence from. The priest from the first dream tells Jerry that his mother's death is 'God's will' so Jerry learns that God killed his mother. Brother Leon is in charge of Trinity, a Catholic school, he gives lessons on God's perfection. Jerry views him and the first priest as spokesmen for God, so his rebellion isn't just against the school but against God himself for killing his mother. Brother Leon also speaks in Jerry's father's voice too, though. Brother Leon is a male authority figure like his father but a far more sinister version. When his father said it, he was resigned and gentle. When Brother Leon said it, it's insulting Jerry's father's resignation to the will of God. I don't know, maybe that's a stretch. Whatever.

Anyway, we then see Jerry's mother talking in the voice of the boy that praised Jerry for standing up to the Vigils. She's smiling and her words are full of praise, but it feels mocking. Like she's not actually praising him but laughing at him.

Finally, Jerry's father says Goubert's words. Jerry's father gave up on his dream of becoming a doctor, or at least never reached for it, and reflects giving up on life like how Goubert gave up the football team once the going got rough. And not only did his father give up on being a doctor, he also in a way gave up on being angry at his wife's death. As I mentioned earlier, he accepted her death as being just how things are in contrast to Jerry's anger. Jerry is disappointed in his father for not being more upset just like how he's disappointed in Goubert for not standing up against the Vigils.

Going back to Jerry's mother, he dreams that he has a call from her telling him how proud she is. Again, this would normally be great. He wants to make his mother proud, that's part of why he's doing all this in the first place. But it still feels mocking. His father is smiling as he hands him the phone, but he's speaking slow in a dimly lit hallway in front of Jerry's shadowy figure. Moreover, the only phone calls Jerry had been getting lately in the waking world were ones of boys laughing at him with no words. We never see Jerry answer the phone since the scene cuts to the red moon, further adding to the eerie atmosphere. Is what he's doing really making her proud? If it is, is it worth it? All this harassment, the beatings, the negative attention- is standing up to the Vigils and the school really worth making a dead woman proud?

The last part has the roles in the classroom switched around. In the previous dream, Jerry was being hit by Brother Leon. Here, Jerry is doing the hitting but he's not attacking Brother Leon- he's attacking Archie dressed as Leon. He knows the two are in on it together, but he can't touch Brother Leon because he's not only a teacher but a monk too. However, Archie is just another student and though an extremely powerful one there's at least somewhat of a chance Jerry could take him on. However, despite Jerry striking him, Archie just smiles at the camera. A slow, sinister smile aimed at the audience. Jerry can hit him all he likes but he can't take him down.

That's it for the dreams themselves, but let me talk real quickly about what Jerry sees after he wins his big fight.

He has just won against Archie, beat him unconscious and took him personally down but still played into the hands of the Vigils. One of the strange things he sees after winning is Brother Leon standing next to Janza with a hand on his shoulder. I can't quite tell if this is meant to be in his imagination or actually happening. It would be kind of strange if it was actually happening. In the book, Brother Leon does show up at the final fight but he only comes to interfere with another monk trying to punish Archie. Here, Archie is beaten and no monks come out to break things up but Brother Leon still shows up and looks proud that Jerry won. He also has his arm around Janza, a student we've never seen him interacting with before. Leon is the one that enlisted Archie's help and the sale was a success, why would he be happy if Archie got beaten in the end? That's what leads me to think that this small bit was all in Jerry's mind to show that the true villain is still out there and can make other boys his pawns in whatever games he plays.

Then Jerry looks out to the bleachers and in the middle of all the cheering boys he sees his mother sitting there, a tear rolling down her stony face. This is the opposite of Jerry's previous dream. There, she was proud of him but it felt fake. Here, she's disappointed in him and it feels real. Jerry gave in to violence, gave into the games of the Vigils, let the school win and knows that his mother would be disappointed. He won, but he lost.

And that's all I have to say about the dreams. At the moment, I only have one more post I want to write about The Chocolate War, specifically about the role of sports and masculinity. Join me next time, sunglasses emoji.

Catholicism, Conformity, Control, and Capitalism in the Chocolate War

Somebody let SparkNotes know because my analyses are a million times better than theirs.

So let's talk about the four C's of The Chocolate War: Catholicism, Conformity, Control, and Capitalism.

Help Make Wonderful Memories

So, as you may have noticed, the story takes place in an all boys Catholic school called Trinity. For a bit of background, author Robert Cormier attended a Catholic school himself in his hometown of French Hill, Massachusetts. He really went with a 'write what you know' moment so The Chocolate War takes place in a Catholic school and I don't remember if they specifically say it's Massachusetts but they mention going to Boston at one point and some of the characters in the movie have Massachusetts accents so I think it's safe to say it's in Massachusetts.

I'm going to be honest, I'm not an expert in Catholicism. I'm Greek Orthodox. But my mom was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school, and I actually attended a Jesuit university for two years so I'm not totally in the dark. There's one thing my mom always said- "if you want to ensure that your kids won't be Catholic when they grow up, send them to Catholic school". Needless to say, she did not enjoy it. I can see why Catholic school might be awful for teenagers. They have to wear uniforms, they have to bow not only to regular school authorities but also to religious authorities, they are taught from a purely Catholic point of view as opposed to a diverse education, and I'm not sure but I think they have to attend mass??? which is super boring but they don't mention it in the book and one scene in the movie might be at mass??? so I'm not sure if they actually do (my roommate just told me that they definitely do [Edit: just noticed that in chapter two they mention going to chapel]). Either way all these things are the exact opposite of what teenagers yearn for- they want to be free to express themselves, to learn about the world around them, and to not be told what to do. I'm not trying to diss Catholic schools or anything, I'm just saying in the context of this book they might have a somewhat negative impact on students. Of course, public high schools have issues like this too but we're not talking about public school.

The makeup of Trinity is pretty homogenous, and this is especially apparent in the movie. All the students are white and male, and a majority are Catholic (it is mentioned at one point that there are several non-Catholic students). If the last names are any indication, there are two main ethnic groups at the school: French and Italian, and then there are some others from like I don't know Scotland? Ireland? and I also have no clue where the name Janza is from, maybe Czech? And the name Costello manages to be both Irish and Italian at the same time but more likely it's just Irish and also I can't imagine an Italian dude named Archie. Also, side note, why did Cormier decide to name this terrifying, cold and calculating villain 'Archie'? That's so goofy. Why not just give him a friend named Jughead while you're at it. Whatever, I'm not gonna argue with a dead dude. Okay so basically what I'm trying to say here is that the school is not diverse.

In the film, the only people of color we see are Lisa's two friends. Otherwise, we get scores of young white boys in the same uniform and several monks in the same brown robes. The only individuality they're really allowed is their hairstyles and their coats (and Archie has a seriously nice coat).

Love that 80s hair

So here, Catholicism and conformity go hand in hand. Early in the story when Brother Leon interrogates Bailey in front of the class,  he admonishes the other students for allowing it to happen and compares it to Nazi Germany. I discussed this scene a bit more in my character analysis of Brother Leon a couple posts back, but here I'm going to talk about it more in relation to conformity. Comparing the class to Nazi Germany is a rather serious accusation and sets the story up to parallel the rise of fascism. The Nazi's wanted to create a totally homogenous, unified Germany by getting rid of all those they felt were undesirable- and this actually included Catholics. Of course, Catholics weren't persecuted the same way Jewish or Romani people were, but many high ranking Nazis and Hitler himself were strongly anti-Catholic. Moreover, the USA has held anti-Catholic sentiments since the days of the colonies and even in the 1960s there was a strong pushback against JFK because he was Catholic. Naturally, a Catholic school in the 1970s (1980s in the movie) would be sensitive to this type of persecution and conformity in the general population, which is what makes it ironic when the school recreates it themselves.

Let's go back to a previous post where I analyzed Jerry Renault. There, I discussed how Jerry was moved by a line from the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" written by T.S. Eliot. In one of Jerry's classes they had to study Eliot as he was a prominent Catholic poet and that's how Jerry discovered his work. The line "do I dare disturb the universe" is one factor that inspires him to rebel against the school and the Vigils. Here, Jerry reflects true Catholic principles and the teachings of Jesus Christ- he peacefully stands up to authority and fights for change. It is also here that the school fails the teachings of Christ- they become the persecutors. It is cruelly ironic for the school that they are the ones who teach Jerry to rebel when they teach him about Eliot and when Leon gives the 'lesson' about allowing persecution. In essence, Trinity is run by a hypocrite in the form of Brother Leon. He condemns conformity but then enforces it.

Jerry's refusal to conform at first causes some students to view him as a symbol for rebellion, but soon they turn on him due to an intensive marketing campaign by the Vigils. One question asked by another student to Jerry in chapter 30 reveals the reason for the sudden change in the students' attitudes-

"you think you're better than we are?"

How come Jerry doesn't have to do his part? How come Jerry gets to receive the benefits of going to Trinity without doing any work? How come Jerry isn't a team player? The Vigils paint Jerry as a smug, lazy dissenter who thinks he's better than everyone else. They also accuse him of being gay, further playing into the homophobic beliefs held by the students and the Catholic church itself. And it's effective. He's no longer a symbol of revolution but rather a symbol of all that any hard-working, honest, red-blooded American man should hate.

Social distancing

This leads us into talking about control. The whole story is about control and fighting each other for power. As I mentioned earlier, the Catholic school system controls these boys' education and forms of self expression, they are not allowed much freedom. Last week, my coworker was talking to me about her upbringing in the Catholic church. She went to Catholic school k-12th and even stayed at a convent upon graduating to consider becoming a nun. She told me that the system is quite repressive and that repression is dangerous because eventually the darker side of human nature will be forced out. At Trinity, this dark side takes the form of the Vigils. When you control every aspect of a teenager's life they will rebel in dangerous ways to try and take back even the smallest portion of some control. Since the Vigils are just teenagers and don't have any power over their own lives they form a secret society to have power over all the other students. It is the fault of adults that create a repressive, unsafe world for teenagers that leads to them doing horrible things to one another and quite literally starting a war.

Alright, we've covered Catholicism, conformity, and control but where does capitalism fit into all of this? Well, in my opinion, capitalism is the root of almost every problem in the story. I don't know what Robert Cormier's political opinions were and honestly I don't really care to know because this is my analysis, but capitalism is a driving force for the conflict of the story.

What kicks off the main plot of The Chocolate War? Money. As mentioned in my character analysis of Emile Janza, most of the parents and alumni of Trinity are not super wealthy and usually private schools rely on the donations of alumni along with the costs of tuition. However, Trinity and many other private schools are struggling to raise enough money to cover their costs but the families of students cannot afford any tuition increases. The school has an annual chocolate sale to raise funds- fine, that's all good- but this year Brother Leon increases the prices and the number of chocolates that need to be sold. If capitalism and money itself didn't exist, this problem would be nonexistent. Unfortunately, capitalism does exist and is what spurs on Brother Leon.

Now, I don't really like to look at The Chocolate War as one big metaphor (though Cormier himself said that he 'regarded the school as a metaphor for the world' in an introduction he wrote for the 1997 edition) but I do like to look at it as a reflection and consequence of the world. I could call Brother Leon a metaphor for the government and capitalism, the Vigils as possibly the military or police, Jerry as dissenters and revolutionaries, etc. But the world is too complex for such simple metaphors. Instead, I prefer to look at Brother Leon as something created by capitalism- a capitalist. His motivation is power and money and he relies on the labor of students for it. He buys the chocolates with money that he wasn't supposed to use, bumps up the price, has the students sell them, then takes the fruits of their labor and gives them nothing in return. Naturally, this stresses the students out but they see no way out of the sale for fear of repercussions. Brother Leon enlists the help of the Vigils for the sale with the promise of more power, which is the one thing they crave. Or at least what Archie craves. In the world at large, the one thing that compels people to uphold capitalism is the hope that one day they will be one of the lucky ones that holds power and riches even if they have to step on others to get there. Capitalism is so ingrained in American culture that it seeps through and infects even small schools like Trinity. Even the Catholic church itself isn't safe- one of the biggest criticisms I've heard is that it's run like a business.

Capitalism is a social construct. Capitalism is a mass hallucination that can be broken at any time. Of course, it's not that easy to destroy, even on a small scale like at Trinity. What is required to end this hallucination is the workers joining forces to overthrow their rulers. At Trinity, the students can't truly overthrow Brother Leon and the school himself, but they can overthrow the Vigils. The exact number of Vigils is not given, but it can't be that many considering it's an exclusive club and the overall population of the school is around 400 students. Unless the Vigils have over 200 members (unlikely) then they are vastly outnumbered by the other students. Why don't the other students just stop going along with their assignments? Sure, the Vigils got some muscle like Carter but there has to be other strong students that could take him on. Unfortunately, every time there is a dissenter he is quickly crushed. Several students talk of revolt and openly admire Jerry, but the Vigils resort to violence to quell any uprisings, much to Archie's displeasure. This proves to be effective- it's violence that ends Jerry's revolt in the final showdown. In chapter 32, after Jerry is beaten up by the children that Janza hires, the narration says "funny, somebody does violence to you but you're the one who has to hide, as if you're the criminal." Not only is the fear of violence what keeps the students docile, but also the fear of emasculation from said violence. It's quite simply embarrassing for a teen boy, a football player at that, to be seen bruised from losing a fight. That's why when offered the chance to get revenge on Janza and prove himself to be a, for lack of a better term, 'real man' he jumps. None of the other boys want to be subjected to that and therefore fall in line with the school and the Vigils, much like how the threat of violence is what keeps capitalism from falling.

However, it's not just violence that keeps capitalism alive. As I mentioned before, capitalism is deeply ingrained in American culture. Many citizens don't need to be forced into upholding it, they have been indoctrinated into believing it to be the best system. They think that socialists are lazy moochers, they think that communists are authoritarian dictators without realizing that those at the top of the capitalist pyramid are both- much like Brother Leon is both. Archie manages to indoctrinate the students into this way of thinking so they begin to think of Jerry as the enemy.

In the end, the chocolates are all sold, the money is raised, and the Vigils with Archie at the helm have more power than ever before. Then how come none of them are happy? The only real winner is Brother Leon- he makes his money and impresses the school board, paving the way for him to become headmaster next year. Obviously Jerry isn't happy- he loses the war. In the order of the Vigils, president Carter is miserable and has been for the past two years from having to deal with Archie's 'psychological crap', his 'silly games', and acting as 'the big shot as if he ran the show.' Carter hates his role in the club. Obie also hates his role, he hates playing second fiddle to the cruel and demanding Archie. Even Archie himself is miserable. In his character analysis I discussed how he is drained and hollow from creating new assignments constantly, how he's being used by those around him, and how truly lonely he is. He didn't win, he just thinks he did. In capitalist American society, the only ones who are truly happy are those at the very top. The rest of the population can think that they're happy, that they're winning, that they're lucky to live in the land of the free and not in some apocalyptic socialist nation, but they're really not. The soulless pursuit of money and power destroys any sense of human empathy and can never bring true happiness. Archie can have all the power he wants but he will never be truly happy.

In the end, Trinity is not Nazi Germany- it's the United States of America.



_

Okay that's it for this post. I've got a couple more posts planned for analyzing The Chocolate War (I wanna talk about the role of sports + masculinity and talk about Jerry's dreams in the movie), so stay tuned.

Character analysis part 2- The Chocolate War

Welcome back, folks! Fun fact: there's more than three characters in The Chocolate War. Here's three more that I'm gonna talk about. Also, I had to read a fucking poem to write this so you better appreciate it.

First up: our hero, Jerry Renault-

king

Jerry Renault is a 14 year old boy (15 in the movie, ignore the fact that his actor is clearly 19) starting his first year of high school, and boy is he in for one wild ride. One main thing to know about Jerry is that he's young and confused. In fact, one of his most often said phrases is "I don't know". He's still finding himself in this world and going through a period of change. Aside from starting high school, a huge event in a young person's life, he also recently lost his mother to cancer and is adjusting to life without her. In my opinion, this sets up his whole character motivation. He doesn't realize it but he saw his mother die before her time and learns that he too could be taken at any moment. This lesson is what spurs him on to 'disturb the universe' and break away from the herd mentality at Trinity. He sees that his father lives a humdrum life, every day at the pharmacy is just 'fine', he never became a doctor, and now his wife is dead and he resorts to drinking to deal with the grief. Jerry views his father as a tale of caution about being complacent and never reaching for what you believe. This is what spurs Jerry on to rebel against the school and the Vigils. However, when he's asked by others why he rebels, he can only say "I don't know". And I think that he truly doesn't know, he doesn't take the time to look at all the facts and figure out what's motivating him. He only knows that he has to dare to disturb the universe in some way. In the movie, there are several scenes where he is just staring at himself in the mirror. This illustrates how he is trying to figure out who he is, looking deep into himself. But he comes up short, or if he does find anything he can't verbalize it to others.

Jerry is quiet but brave. He's new to school and trying to find his footing but he nonetheless makes waves. The story begins in October, so Jerry would have been at Trinity for only a month or two when he dives in head first to disturb the order. His rebellion isn't loud and brash, he doesn't rile up the other students to revolution, but rather quiet and pacifistic. He doesn't need to shout to be heard, he disrupts the hive mind with a simple 'no'. In his moments of peaceful protest he is at his strongest. He tends to avoid conflict, as seen when he is being interrogated by Archie and he hardly speaks because he knows there's no point in it. The beginning of his downfall is when he becomes incensed at Janza throwing homophobic slurs at him and agrees to the boxing match. He abandoned his pacifistic principles and gave way to his anger. By the time he realized his mistake, he was too proud to back down from the fight in front of the whole school.  While him agreeing to the fight might make him seem brave to outsiders it actually shows him at his most cowardly. He is brave when he disrupts the system by remaining cool, calm, and peaceful, when nobody can get to him and become enraged at his disobedience.

He is also inspired by the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot (also the reason we have Cats starring Jason Derulo), who's work he has to study in class. For a bit of background, Eliot was a Catholic poet and published "Prufrock" in 1915. I read the poem once over before writing this, didn't really get it, so I went on Wikipedia and am just going with what they said. The poem follows the character of Prufrock and his lamenting on 'lost opportunities', 'sexual frustration', 'emasculation', and 'awareness of mortality'. To quote Wikipedia directly the poem "relays the thoughts of a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to say something but is afraid to do so, and ultimately does not". In Jerry's locker he has a poster of a lone man on the beach with a quote from "Prufrock" that reads"do I dare disturb the universe?" Jerry himself does not know why he chose this poster, 'but it had moved him mysteriously'. Again, Jerry is living in a state of confusion where he doesn't know why he does the things he does but just knows that he must. The character of Prufrock reflects what Jerry's life could become. He doesn't want to be like Prufrock, alone and full of regrets for never striving towards something greater. This theme is also apparent in Jerry's relationship with his father, who never strived towards his goals, and how Jerry wants to follow a different path.

Jerry and big papa

Moreover, the character of Prufrock is struggling with sexual frustration and reflects how Jerry (and most teen boys) is coming of age and learning about sex and love. If Jerry does not develop a healthy relationship with sex then he could end up like Prufrock, alone and with unfulfilled lust. In the book, Jerry has a crush on a girl named Ellen Barrett and calls her one day. He can't find the words to admit his feelings to her and after hearing her ask about some guy named Danny and if Jerry is a 'pervert' he realizes that he doesn't really know this girl and simply idealized her in his mind. Despite the call being a failure, the narration still remarks that he had taken a huge step in calling at all and has 'broken the routine of his days and nights'. He has done what Prufrock never achieved- he put himself out there. He gains some confidence from this episode and renews his passion for defying Brother Leon and the Vigils.

There are other aspects about Jerry's psyche that I would like to discuss but I'll be saving for now, such as his role on the football team, his failure in taking down the Vigils, and the strange dreams he has in the movie. Overall, Jerry is a confused but strong young man.


Next we have Obie-

Obie is the secretary of the Vigils and Archie's sidekick. Unlike other sidekicks however, he actively hates Archie. He behaves rather passive-aggressively towards him, such as having Archie meet him in the gym knowing how much he hates it. He still acts subservient towards him to keep his place in the Vigils and avoid becoming one of his victims. He keeps chocolate handy to please Archie, keeps track of every kid in school for him, risks his job just to serve him. He is disloyal to Archie, but of course why should he be loyal in the first place? Archie treats him coldly, only showing the briefest bit of kindness, condescends to him like a servant, and has done nothing to earn his loyalty. Obie is the person closest to Archie and is the one of the few who can see not only the full extent of his cruelty but also the cracking facade and hollowness beneath. He contrasts with Archie in many ways- where Archie is a handsome and confident but amazingly cruel leader, Obie is a follower, just someone who does what others want and an otherwise average kid. Obie is no doubt a bully, any member of the Vigils is one by default, but he does have some standards compared to Archie. He dislikes the idea of handing an assignment to Jerry and feels for this 'skinny kid' with a dead mother. However, despite his initial protests, he never goes out of his way to defend Jerry once the harassment starts and doesn't seem remorseful for his role in it. Of course, were he to defend Jerry he would lose his place in the Vigils and become a target. I can't decide if Obie is cowardly or just has a strong sense of self preservation.

One thing that's clear about Obie is that he's a follower and gives away his own beliefs to make way for the group. At the end of chapter 2 he is looking out across the football field, lamenting that he never tried out for the team, and finds that 'the shadows of the goal posts resembled a network of crosses, empty crucifixes' (this scene also contains the amusing line 'that's enough symbolism for one day', just thought I'd share). I want to discuss the theme of football and sports in the book in a later post, but here I want to say that even though Obie never ended up on the football team, he still ended up on a team- the Vigils. The goal posts resembling crosses reflects how he kills his own wants and free will for the good of the group. He sees the death of his own self in assimilating into the group. Eventually, Obie grows somewhat of a spine and teams up with Carter to try and take down Archie. Of course, they fail and Obie is put right back into the position he started in. However, in the last chapter, Obie again sees the goal posts after the boxing match and 'they reminded him of something. He couldn't remember'. It is during this scene that Obie makes his hatred of Archie clear, threatening that someday he'll get his and calling Leon a bastard. This is also the scene where Obie doesn't provide a Hershey to Archie when asked. The character development is clear here- he no longer will push aside his own feelings for the good of the Vigils and Archie. The goal posts no longer remind him of crosses, he no longer sees his own death but rather the death of Archie. And that's all I have to say about him at the moment.


The last character I'll be analyzing for now is Roland Goubert-

He's really tall

So they call this kid "the Goober" but I'm just gonna call him Goubert because I can't write a serious analysis with the word 'goober' in it. Anyway, he is Jerry's only friend and a fellow member of the football team. His whole thing is that he's really good at running and other sports. He comes across as a counterpart to Obie in that he is sort of a sidekick to Jerry and also a follower. Unlike Obie, he is not at all a bully and in fact a very gentle soul and prone to tears. Even cold hearted Archie nearly feels sorry for him. When he is forced by the Vigils to mess with room nineteen, he is overcome by guilt for hurting the sensitive Brother Eugene. This guilt wreaks havoc inside him and causes him to quit sports. Despite being a tall, strong athlete, Goubert is sensitive, quiet, and obedient. During Jerry's rebellion against the chocolate sale and the Vigils, Goubert wishes that Jerry would give it up and just conform like the rest of them. Goubert doesn't like conflict and wants to keep things stable and fly under the radar. Every time Jerry says 'no' in class, Goubert flinches inside and is troubled by all the drama. Eventually, he comes around to align himself with Jerry but he fails to voice it. He stops selling chocolates but tells nobody, and nobody ever gets the chance to notice because the Vigils fake him reaching his quota without him knowing. Goubert contrasts with Jerry in that Jerry is a pacifist, Goubert is just passive. He doesn't make waves and allows the Vigils to walk all over him and the other students.

Maybe if Goubert had made it more known that he was joining Jerry in rebellion that things would have gone different, but Goubert failed him in that. While I can't blame the kid for being afraid (again, he's like only 14 or 15), it is disappointing that he left his friend to hang. However, from his point of view it makes sense that he wouldn't want to defy the Vigils. He saw, and was made to be responsible for, Brother Eugene having a mental breakdown after the incident in room nineteen. He saw just how seriously the Vigils could hurt a person and was terrified into submission. In the end, Goubert was in a way proven right. Jerry loses the fight in the book, and tries to tell Goubert not to disturb the universe like he did. In the movie, when Jerry wins the fight, he looks out at the crowd and sees Goubert's disappointed face. Goubert dislikes the way things have snowballed into a giant showdown, this is the opposite of everything he wanted. Overall, he's just a child that wants to lead a simple, ordinary life with his head down.


Okay that's it for character analyses :) Join me next time for looking at more themes :)