Hwk 46

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is about a boy named Jerry Renault who attends an all boy’s school. As a freshman in Trinity High School, he faces the Vigils. The Vigils are a school gang lead by Archie Costello who gives out “assignments” to other boys in the school, which tends to mess with the victims mind in a psychological manner. Jerry is called out on an assignment by refusing to sell chocolates in the yearly school chocolate sale. Later on, the Vigils call Jerry back and offer to put an end to his “assignment” but he refuses in doing so. This causes most of the other boys attending the school to do the same and there are not many sales being made. The school gang then makes Jerry feel left out of the social circle which causes the sales to go up again. But this causes no change of Jerry’s refusal towards the chocolate sales; this is why the Vigils decide to make his life terrible. They are messing around with his locker, getting rid of his homework, making phone calls to his house and at last decide to beat him up. Later on another fight goes off between Jerry and Emile; Jerry ends up with many injuries and in no hope of a future.

My topic is: How do alpha males and females in school shape up the school environment for others? In The Chocolate War, Jerry is an innocent freshman who wants to make the school football team and be known as something. Even though the leader of the Vigils is aware of Jerry’s tough life he decides to give this cruel assignment to Jerry. Because the Vigils are obviously the “leaders” of all the other boys in school, they are always given respect. At first Jerry decides to accept the assignment and follows all the rules given, but he later on decides to do what he feels comfortable doing. He doesn’t care what the Vigils have to say, because he doesn’t want them to be in charge of his life in school. The alpha males in this story are shaping up how things are run in school; these are the guys that are in control of the chocolate sale and control the school life of other guys in Trinity. In my own experience it seems that whatever the alpha figure decides to do, is suddenly fine with all the others surrounding them. If someone decides to disrupt class, they usually gain more confidence by the respect of others or the appreciation of others. If someone decides to take a leading role, they cannot be brought down, when they are able to gain much confidence they are able to rule over others. And when they take this position, a strong force is needed to bring them back down.

Because the Vigils are in charge of all the “assignments” and the annual chocolate sale in school, all the other boys in Trinity are supposed to do what they are ordered to do by the school gang. This is how the way things are at Trinity, and this is the same concept shown in different forms in other schools as well. The lead role of the male sets an example and is allowed to boss others around because he is in charge and the others accept that. This is why Jerry does not shut down on the command from the Vigils. He knew that it was something he had to do but had no choice. Later on he doesn’t follow instructions given to him by the Vigils, and he suffers from this decision. Even though he gets tortured by doing so, he doesn’t change his mind and the story ends with him injured. When the victim tries to stand up for himself, the alpha role is still much powerful than the victim. He or she can turn all the others against him/her. Because Jerry does not cope with Archie and his demands, his school life is turned into a very bad image. Which ever way the victim decides to deal with the problem, it leads him to a new set of problems; Jerry either had to follow orders from the Vigils or get tortured when not doing so. The alpha role in school is in charge of sketching out the victim’s school life.