Human beings. When they read a book or watch a movie, there is always something that clicks within them that they can either relate to or like a lot. The Chocolate War is no different. Not necessarily considered AP material, it is a revelatory novel. The book had me analyzing my own life as well as the world around me. After finishing, I came to a startling conclusion, one that has changed my outlook “I don’t know everything”, but before the novel I thought I did. I am an adolescent and sure, I believe that I know everything and anything my parents tell me is wrong - I have all the right answers, even if I’m wrong, I’m still right. There were three quotes that spoke to me the most about the nature of humanity and what people do and why.
“ ’Simple, Carter, simple.’ Archie reveled in the moment, basking in Carter’s admiration, Carter who had humiliated him at The Vigils meeting. ‘You see, Carter, people are two things: greedy and cruel.’ “ (241). Archie makes this comment right before he starts the boxing match. Despite his cruelty, he is very well educated on the human state and recognizes that if a person has something of worth – in this case, the boys pay a dollar and could possibly win one hundred dollars and fifty boxes of chocolates – people will go to any lengths to acquire the prize. Until I read Archie’s comment, I hadn’t completely thought about human greediness and cruelty. Even when I did, I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying; I didn’t want to think about it, since I didn’t want to think of myself as greedy and cruel. Archie was lecturing Carter about the characteristics of human beings right before Jerry and Janza do their ‘assignment’, even after I read what Archie had said, and re-read I thought “we can’t possibly be greedy”; when upon closer inspection I realized that the author’s statement was completely true. I realized ‘greedy’ doesn’t strictly mean money, everybody wants something different and they can deny it until their death, but...