Mean Girls and The Chocolate War by Kristie Jolley
Kristie Jolley is a CUWP Fellow/Teacher Consultant for the Central Utah Writing Project and is currently a graduate student at Brigham Young University focusing on English Education. She reaches into her experience as a secondary language arts instructor to inform her reading, research, and advocacy for young adults and the teachers who work with them. Her classroom-based research in using non-traditional texts as bridges for remedial or reluctant readers crossing over toward identities as readers has been published in the English Journal in “Video Games to Reading: Reaching Out to Reluctant Readers.” She can be reached at [email protected]. |
Based on actual events where people died!
(No one died.)”
–Janis and Damian from Mean Girls (Richmond & Nell, 2018)
Generational Longevity
We will be celebrating Mean Girls Day tomorrow, marking 20 years since the original movie was released. Who knew when Rosalind Wiseman wrote her first edition of the girls’ clique self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabees back in 2002, it would get picked up by comedy mastermind, Tina Fey and turned into a movie (Mean Girls) in 2004, then into a musical by the same name in 2017, then into a YA novel (Mean Girls, A Novel) in 2017, then into a Shakespearean parody (Much Ado About Mean Girls) in 2019, then into a graphic novel (Mean Girls, Senior Year) in 2020, then back into a new interpretation of the movie and the musical in 2024?
Realism in Mean Girls and The Chocolate War
“But how far would you go
To be popular and hot?
Would you resist temptation?
No you would not!
Just admit it, sometimes
Mean is what you are
Mean is easier than nice
And though mean can take you far
Maybe this will make you think twice” (Richmond & Nell, 2018)
The writers of Mean Girls are reflecting the harsh reality of life. “Mean is what you are/Mean is easier than nice.” In thinking about Cormier’s The Chocolate War, we have a protagonist, Jerry, who consistently almost stands up for himself, supporting characters who almost take a stand against bullies, antagonists who almost feel remorse for their choices, and adults who almost reach out and make positive connections with the youth they have stewardship over. Do any of these characters actually do these things? No. Why? It’s easier not to. “Dare I disturb the universe?” Cormier’s protagonist Jerry asks himself, just before he does nothing. No. “Mean is easier than nice.”
The Characters
Regina from Mean Girls and Archie from The Chocolate War are antagonists cut from the same cloth. Regina’s power lies in others’ willingness to follow her. She would be nothing without Gretchen and the Plastics to do her bidding. Archie knows the moment Obie turns on him, he will lose power within the Vigils gang, the school and the faculty. Archie works intentionally to keep Obie below him so his empire doesn’t crumble.
We can see Gretchen and Obie both hate their respective antagonists. Gretchen gives a full speech in the 2004 version of the movie and concludes, “Why should Caesar get to stomp around like a giant while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? What’s so great about Caesar, hm? Brutus is just as cute as Caesar. Brutus is just as smart as Caesar, people totally like Brutus as much as they like Caesar. WE SHOULD TOTALLY JUST STAB CAESAR!” and Obie, in The Chocolate War, clearly manipulates Archie, calling on him to meet in the gym because Obie knows exactly how much Archie hates sweat. In this uncomfortable place, Obie challenges Archie with Jerry’s stand against him and the Vigils to continue not to sell chocolates despite the gang’s mandate to do so. Obie is sick of Archie’s bullying just as Gretchen is sick of Regina’s manipulation but the force still keeping both of them in place is fear of the antagonist. They don’t progress further than resentment because their fear keeps them both in check.
Invitation for Dialogue and the Most Powerful Intersection Point of Mean Girls and The Chocolate War
A place of action.
A place where one must win or one must lose.
For today’s young adult readers of The Chocolate War, it can be intimidating to jump into a text that is 50 years old and expect to find relevance. Is it worth the try? Yes. How can educators make it accessible and relevant to their students? Build on the momentum of the more recently published Mean Girls phenomenon. The intersection points of longevity, realism, characters, and dialogue can be catalysts for a fresh look at the common adolescent experience of knowing what one must do but not quite knowing how to traverse from old habits to actually do it. Both texts offer a powerful tool to cross this difficult bridge: reflection through dialogue.
Cady might very well respond with, “The limit does not exist.”
No direct answer is given, the audience is free to work out what their own response would be.
If that isn’t fetch, I don’t know what is.