Chocolate War -- Do I Term Paper

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Thinking of his father, he defies even the coach's remark that he is too puny to play. Jerry must overcome his own sense of powerlessness, and the sickness that overtakes his body after being buffeted from all sides. Emotionally and physically, although he may appear weak, Jerry has inner resources of steel that he discovers when he is, literally and figuratively, down for the count and up against the ropes like a fighter.

Later in the novel, when Jerry continues to ignore Brother Leon's command to sell chocolate, Jerry is told that he has 'guts' again. He experiences the profound realization that his nonconformist stance has empowered other boys, who hated the domination of the school authorities and the Vigils whose abuses the brothers tolerate because they enforce the administration's will and discipline. "I never thought of saying no. Just like you did," marvels an older boy. (125) "We have tradition on our side. The chocolate sale is an annual event. The boys have come to expect it," says the brother sanctimoniously at the beginning of the year. In reality, the chocolate sale, like all enforced traditions, has become an instrument of control of the brothers over the boys. If one boy flaunts school discipline and suggests that the other boys need not obey the brother's every whim, the system will begin to crack. Jerry's decision not to sell occurred on the spur of the moment, partly in ignorance of school traditions, but he realizes he has more power as an individual than he ever knew.

Jerry cannot triumph because the brothers enlist other boys to act as examples of model citizens who sell chocolate -- even though these Vigils are some of the cruelest and most ruthless boys in the entire school.

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"The Vigils was a symbol of how powerful the organization [of the school] had become." (69) Jerry realizes that even a "crappy chocolate sale" can become infested with symbolic significance of school authority. (69) the brothers are so determined to exercise their command that their real responsibilities of caring for the students and teaching the students are forgotten, just like Jerry's father has forgotten how to be a parent. When adults shirk their responsibilities, adolescents are thrown to their own devices, devices that may be moral and uncompromising like Jerry's character, or corrupt like the character of the Vigil boys. "Christ, there's more to life than a lousy chocolate sale," Jerry says to himself at the end of the novel. (227) but he pays dearly for his defiant disturbance of the universe. This is Jerry's final, last, and most painful lesson -- that morality does not guarantee someone an easy life, or a happy ending. At the end of the novel Jerry is forced to physically fight for his stance in a rigged boxing match that eventually results in his being taken away in an ambulance. Brother Leon, of course, turns a blind eye, merely satisfied that his boxes of chocolate are sold. Jerry's only prize is not victory, or even winning the hearts of everyone at the school, but the final, quiet certainty that he does have guts, and that he has retained his moral center in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. His actions have meaning and a lasting impact, even though Jerry's story does not have a conventional happy ending. The happiness Jerry earns is all inside.

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