Character analysis part one- The Chocolate War

Okay I'm gonna go through some of the major characters in The Chocolate War and analyze them here. Again, since the book and movie are so similar I'll be kind of conflating them a little bit and if you don't like that then go fuck yourself. I work at a grocery store, this isn't my real job.

Starting with woke king Archie Costello-

He's also got a great Massachusetts accent

Okay so he's like totally antisocial and when I say antisocial I don't mean that he's shy or quiet but he's what one might call a sociopath but I don't want to use the word sociopath because I don't know but I feel like it's not cool to use it so lackadaisically. I'm not a psychologist or anything. Also he's not entirely without empathy, as you'll see. I know I've spent like the last three posts talking about him but I've got more to say. Anyway, some words to describe his personality: intelligent, confident, manipulative, cruel, ambitious, creative, and fake. I've already gone through the first six traits in previous posts so let's talk about how fake he is. So, people are always saying that antisocial people like Archie are always so charming and that's how they are so good at manipulating people but honestly he's not that charming. He talks smoothly and confidently but everyone can see through his bullshit. In chapter 2 it's mentioned from Obie's point of view that Archie is 'quick with the words' but also 'phony' and tries to sound like a cool swinger when he's really a 'senior in a lousy little high school'. He puts on a cool and confident front to make up for the fact that he's just a teenager trapped in school. None of the other Vigils actually like him but rather they use him due to his intelligence and creativity in coming up with assignments. He doesn't get away with the things he does because he's charming and manipulates others into believing his innocence. Rather, he gets away with the things he does because those in power see his cruelty and intelligence and want to use him for their own personal gains.

And he is tired. While he no doubt enjoys creating assignments and gets off on forcing others to do what he says, he is also drained and struggles to come up with new ideas. The other Vigils only see him when he's intimidating other students and handing out assignments. They don't see how he loses sleep, pushes all other responsibilities to the side and deprives himself of any fun activities (and in the movie his bedroom makes it seem like he lives like an ascetic). Again in chapter 2 we get our first look into how tired he is. He tells Obie that it's not easy to come up with assignments, 'his voice dripped sadness', and that he's human too. In chapter 21 the narration describes that he's under 'constant pressure' to come up with assignments and it leaves him 'hollow and empty'. This pressure is doubled during the chocolate sale where he bit off more than he could chew in agreeing to help Brother Leon. Most of his sadness is left unsaid save for the short conversation with Obie at the beginning so it must have been difficult to translate that into film. Luckily, the actor playing Archie was talented enough to show this exhaustion on his face.

Sad boy

Yes, he's cruel, cold, calculating and unsympathetic, but he's also a teenage boy. He's only a human, still just a baby, not some confident, awe-inspiring, all powerful genius that he pretends to be. Some people fall for his mask, most of them don't. Moreover, I mentioned before that he's not entirely without empathy and that is seen first in chapter 2. When he and Obie are writing down a list of names for students to torture, Obie is worried about being late for work. Archie at first seems callous and doesn't care, but then all of a sudden switches to having compassion, 'his eyes gentle', and wrapping things up for Obie's sake. The narration says that Archie has 'changes of mood' and 'could be a wise bastard one minute and a great guy the next'. The only thing worse than just being straight up sadistic 24/7 is being unpredictable.

We don't get a lot of glimpses into his gentler side, and the movie omits that bit entirely, but he is not entirely unfeeling. In fact, it seems that he tries to make himself unfeeling sometimes. In chapter 21 he thinks about how Obie hates him but he is undisturbed by it. He feels that it is 'good to have people hate [him]' because when he puts 'the needle in them' he feels 'justified' and doesn't 'have to worry about [his] conscience'. This implies that he does actually have a conscience and a sense of empathy but he purposely makes people hate him so he can get away with doing horrible things and not feeling bad about it. Underneath everything he's just a lonely, friendless kid. We don't get a lot of clues about his home life or how he was raised, but I'm dying to know what happened to this kid that he's like this. Was he born this way or was this taught to him? Of course, he is still responsible for his own actions and while his sadness does humanize him and make him a more fleshed out character it does not justify his cruelty.


Next up is Emile Janza-

Janza is both Archie's foil and simp. He is everything that Archie is not. He is an aggressive brute and a much more traditional example of a schoolyard bully. He uses violence to get other students to do what he wants, he's a bad boy that smokes and steals gas, he's not stupid but also not much of a thinker and instead a man of action. Janza is everything that Archie detests but Archie is everything that Janza admires. Despite Archie blackmailing him, Janza deeply respects him and considers them to be 'birds of a feather'. He gets off on being cruel and it actually makes him 'horny' to roughhouse other kids and he feels that Archie is the only other person who could understand that feeling. He is also one of the only characters to fall for Archie's flattery despite being shown utter contempt he still falls over himself trying to impress him and prove himself to be Vigils material. First he bullies a freshman into buying him smokes in front of Archie, then later he has a bunch of children beat up Jerry and justifies it to Archie by saying it's the 'psychological' kind of thing that he likes. While bullying Jerry was something he was technically blackmailed into doing, he still took the extra effort to make it psychological just to impress Archie. This desire culminates in him agreeing to a boxing match with Jerry despite no longer being blackmailed. While he's not afraid of a fight, he's still taking a risk with this match.

Of course, while he genuinely likes and respects Archie, he's not solely trying to impress him just for the sake of it. He wants to get into the Vigils. That's his entire character motivation, but for what reason? The Vigils don't use his brand of violence. He does just fine alone, even Archie is chilled by him and considers that he could be a 'dangerous enemy'. Well, that's precisely the problem- he does just fine alone but he's still alone. He is never seen with any friends and appears to act out for attention. In his introductory chapter he is siphoning gas from another student's car and is disappointed that he wasn't caught. He wants to be 'cool' like Archie and be a part of a group. It's also implied that he comes from a lower class background compared to the other students. While nobody at Trinity is exactly wealthy (the wealthiest student's father is a dentist), most students come from middle class backgrounds (Archie's father operates an insurance agency, Jerry's father is a pharmacist). It is stated that Janza's father has a 'major dream' for 'his son to graduate from a fancy private school', and Janza considers his father to be 'stupid' which might imply that his father does not work what society might consider a 'respectable' position like dentist or pharmacist. In the movie, we get a brief glimpse into his home and it is a small, cluttered space.

Still nicer than Archie's bedroom

He's an outcast that alienates himself from his peers due to his feelings of being inadequate and desire for attention. Along with that, he also has an innate sadistic side and genuinely enjoys being cruel to his classmates. By the end of the story he grows to hate Archie and his condescending manner, his mind games, and his lies. However, like Archie, at the end of the day he's just a lonely teen boy without a single friend.


Keeping up with the villains we're gonna look at Brother Leon-

His motivation is the most obvious out of all the characters. He wants to be headmaster and to show off for the school board by raising more money than ever before through the chocolate sale. He's ambitious and dishonest, using money he wasn't supposed to use to invest in the chocolate sale. In my opinion, Brother Leon is the true villain of this story. He is an adult, the vice-principal and acting headmaster, a teacher, and a monk. All four of these roles are ones of authority and he holds power over all the schoolboys at Trinity. He is, in essence, a dictator. And like a dictator, he sees that the Vigils hold an enormous amount of power amongst the student body and seeks to absorb them into his rule so they won't pose a threat. He could just crush the Vigils and expel them, but he enjoys the terror they instill in the other students. If the students are too busy being afraid of the Vigils then they won't have the energy to fight against Brother Leon himself. His anger at Jerry's refusal of selling the chocolates goes deeper than just his anxiety of selling all the boxes. It's not just about the money, though that is a factor, it's also about how Jerry is rebelling against him, challenging his authority.

Ironically, in his first scene he encourages his students to challenge his authority. He brings one student, Gregory Bailey, to the front of the class and accuses him of cheating in front of everyone. He badgers and embarrasses the poor boy and then justifies it at the end by praising Bailey for standing his ground while admonishing the class for allowing it to happen. When I read this and watched the scene in the movie, it seemed that he just wanted to bully a student to demonstrate his power but didn't want to get into trouble for it and therefore turned it into a lesson on being a bystander. This scene establishes him as a cruel, unpredictable, and dishonest person. He is also the only person that can genuinely terrify Archie. Though Archie tries to mess with him at first, he eventually gives in and throws his whole weight into the chocolate sale due to Brother Leon's threats.

Throughout the story, it is uncomfortable to see him acting erratic, aggressive, desperate, and on edge about getting all the chocolates sold. He's close to falling apart when it seems like the sale is failing, but unfortunately it turns around for him and all the chocolate is sold and the money raised. In the book, Jerry loses. In the movie, Archie loses. In both, Brother Leon wins. He creates a pecking order within the school where Brother Leon is the head bully and the Vigils and Archie are merely a result of his cruelty. They have to bow to his authority and subsequently desire to have authority over others since they can't have it over themselves. Of course, it is unclear when the Vigils were first formed or for how long Brother Leon has been working at Trinity, but in the scope of this story he is the main authority and creates an unsafe environment at the school that allows the Vigils to flourish.

Art by Richard Sargent

One more interesting point about Brother Leon is that he first states that 'a line must be drawn between teachers and students' that cannot be crossed. The teachers can't be one of the boys and they have to act as authority figures. However, Brother Leon crosses this line constantly. He enlists Archie help in the sale, then calls him at his home in the night to deal with Archie not succeeding well enough. No doubt it's inappropriate for not only a teacher but a vice-principal to call a student at their home without their parent's knowledge, and even Archie was caught off balance by it. Earlier, after the incident in room nineteen, he forcefully grabs Archie and shoves him against the wall. Brother Leon crosses this line again when speaking to David Caroni. He usually calls the students by their last names to keep the line of separation between them, but in this meeting he calls Caroni by his first name. The narration remarks how that is crossing the invisible line and closing the distance between teacher and pupil. Both of these times he crosses this line to make the students do what he wants. With Archie, he uses intimidation and with Caroni he uses a mask of friendliness with the underlying threat of failing him to get him to tell him what he wants to hear.


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So that's it for part one of analyzing the characters. Stay tuned for when I analyze some more.