Comparison of 1984 and The Chocolate War

While Winston Smith, the main character in George Orwell’s 1984 tries to destroy the government, Jerry Renault, the main character of The Chocolate War written by Robert Cormier, tries to ruin a powerful secret student association of his school.

Jerry Renualt, a freshman of a private high school, fights both mentally and physically against the student association named The Vigils. Jerry knows they are excessively strong to be an opponent of a small freshman; however he believes that he can change the ‘world’ by winning. Winston and Jerry have amazing similarities while they have differences that shouldn’t be ignored.

The strongest similarity would be that they both revolt against the dominant group of people but eventually lose in the mental and physical fight against the group. In The Chocolate War, Jerry is bothered and distressed by The Vigils, which is a stratagem of Archie to make him mentally fatigued and eventually powerless. Also, Jerry does a boxing match with a seriously dangerous student who is in the same side The Vigils, while Winston was brainwashed and subjected to torture in a prison of Ministry of Truth. They both could somewhat overcome mental pressure; however they collapse during physical fight. I believe they could have won if they perceived the power of themselves, but lost confidence and dreams that supported him throughout the whole fight by physical fright and weakness.

Though Winston Smith and Jerry Renualt have many things in common, they have several differences. While Jerry mainly acts according to how he feels, Winston thinks how and why the Party is controlling citizens and tries to devise how to destroy the government, though he couldn't do nearly anything productive. Actually, Jerry realizes why he himself, a weak coward, has desired to revolt against The Vigils in the last part of the book. On the other hand, Winston has a definite reason of his actions which is reestablishing the country like the one during his childhood.

Both 1984 and The Chocolate War do not show a single ray of hope at the catastrophe. Nevertheless, I believe people like Winston Smith and Jerry Renualt will eventually destroy the dystopia if it faces us someday.