Beyond the Chocolate War

Beyond the Chocolate War (1985) is the sequel to the award-winning book The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. The sequel received an Honor List citation from the Horn Book Magazine in 1986.^[1]

Plot summary

The story continues a few months after The Chocolate War ends. As the school year draws to an end, many students look forward to leaving for the summer but Carter and Obie, leading members of the ruthless secret society, The Vigils, can't contemplate the future until they have destroyed the leader, Archie Costello. Obie has seen his relationship with the beautiful Laurie Gundarson ruined by one of Archie's Vigil exploits and is out for revenge. But his plan involving a trick backfires and Archie hands over the leadership of the Vigils with his ruthlessly cool reputation still intact. During all of this, it's also revealed what happened to Jerry Renault after the conclusion of the last book, that he had stayed in Canada, and even after a second scuffle with Emile Janza decides to return to Trinity High School.

The story ends with Archie giving the role of the "Assigner" to his underling, Bunting, but only on one condition: Emile Janza becomes the Vigil's second-in-command. At the end of the year, Janza suggests to Bunting many changes to the way Archie ran the Vigils, including the use of physical force rather than psychological force, taxing students, and the selling of marijuana and pills. Bunting agrees, not knowing that it was Archie recommending all of the various illegal activities. Archie thus engineers the "ruin" of Trinity in coming years. A side story is David Caroni's pursuit of Brother Leon and in the end committing suicide after a failed murder attempt.

The sequel was as well received as its predecessor, but notably darker undercurrents stream beneath its main plot. Principal among those is the spectre of sexual frustration in single sex schools, a sparsely explored theme of both "Chocolate War" books. Critics have argued that Cormier was alluding to Trinity being destroyed by the perversion of simple teenage urges, as the protagonists are frustrated by the compulsory all male environment. Cormier has never made any comment in relation to this claim.

New characters

A few new characters are added to the plot here in Beyond the Chocolate War.

• Ray Bannister - The protagonist of the novel. He is a new transfer student at Trinity who takes an interest in magic tricks. Obie originally intended to simply give him an "assignment" from The Vigils, but later develops a genuine friendship with him.

• Bunting - New member of The Vigils who looks up to Archie and aspires to succeed him as Assigner. Bunting eventually goes as far as trying to rape Obie's girlfriend to prove his loyalty to Archie.

• Cornacchio - New member of The Vigils. Follows orders from Bunting.

• Harley - New member of The Vigils. Follows orders from Bunting.

• Bishop - Planned to give a speech at Trinity but cancelled. The Vigils planned a prank which would have happened if the Bishop had not cancelled.

References

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