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 :)

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.