Chap­ter 10 of The Choco­late War finds Archie reluc­tant­ly acknowl­edg­ing the suc­cess­ful drama­ti­za­tion of the choco­late sale by Broth­er Leon, which has placed increas­ing pres­sure on him and The Vig­ils. The chap­ter opens with a spe­cial assem­bly designed to ral­ly the stu­dent body around the sale, where Broth­er Leon intro­duces ten large card­board posters list­ing the names of every stu­dent, along­side spaces to record their choco­late sales. The assem­bly begins with the usu­al prayers, but the mood quick­ly shifts as the posters, unable to stick to the con­crete walls, cause some humor­ous dis­rup­tion. This unex­pect­ed mishap pro­vides a brief com­ic relief, but it does­n’t deter Broth­er Leon, who con­tin­ues his plan to stir up enthu­si­asm for the sale. Despite the dis­rup­tions, the atmos­phere shifts as Broth­er Leon’s speech grows more intense, focus­ing on the impor­tance of school spir­it and the need for funds to sup­port Trin­i­ty, as he sets the stage for the increased choco­late sales quo­tas.

Broth­er Leon’s speech becomes a pow­er­ful blend of manip­u­la­tion and nos­tal­gia as he urges the stu­dents to view their choco­late sales as a mat­ter of pride for the school’s lega­cy. The stakes are raised when Leon announces that the sales quo­ta has been dou­bled to fifty box­es per stu­dent, a move intend­ed to inten­si­fy the sense of oblig­a­tion. He empha­sizes the impor­tance of this con­tri­bu­tion to the school’s sur­vival and calls on the stu­dents to rise to the occa­sion, invok­ing a sense of col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­i­ty. The urgency of his mes­sage is clear: these sales are no longer just about fundrais­ing but about secur­ing the very future of Trin­i­ty, using both guilt and pride as his main tools. Despite the moti­va­tion behind his words, Archie begins to feel a slight unease as Leon’s fer­vor grows, lead­ing him to reflect on the com­plex­i­ties of his role in this scheme. As the weight of the sit­u­a­tion sinks in, Archie’s inter­nal con­flict grows as he wres­tles with his own part in the choco­late sale’s suc­cess and his desire to main­tain con­trol.

As Broth­er Leon con­tin­ues with his speech, Archie’s thoughts drift, focus­ing on the ear­li­er Vig­il meet­ing where he had guar­an­teed his sup­port for the choco­late sale, despite his peers’ ini­tial reluc­tance. At the meet­ing, Archie had argued pas­sion­ate­ly that The Vig­ils need­ed to endorse the event to show­case their influ­ence, con­vinc­ing the oth­ers that it was a mat­ter of main­tain­ing their author­i­ty. How­ev­er, lis­ten­ing to Leon’s over­ly dra­mat­ic speech now, doubts begin to creep into Archie’s mind, as the exag­ger­at­ed enthu­si­asm from Broth­er Leon feels less gen­uine and more like a pow­er play. Archie begins to ques­tion whether he made the right call in back­ing the sale, as he now sees the pres­sure mount­ing not just on him but on his peers. He reflects on his strat­e­gy for han­dling the increased quo­ta, know­ing that, while he has always man­aged to avoid sell­ing choco­lates him­self, this year’s plan will require more finesse. Archie’s usu­al method has been to del­e­gate the respon­si­bil­i­ty, giv­ing oth­ers the task of sell­ing while keep­ing his own hands clean. How­ev­er, he real­izes that this year he will dis­trib­ute the work­load more even­ly, ensur­ing each per­son only has to sell ten box­es. By fram­ing his strat­e­gy as fair and com­pas­sion­ate, Archie jus­ti­fies his deci­sion, although the under­ly­ing inten­tion remains to main­tain con­trol over The Vig­ils’ oper­a­tions. As he sits back, sat­is­fied with his cal­cu­lat­ed approach, he exhibits both his arro­gance and a mis­placed sense of fair­ness, show­ing how his manip­u­la­tion skills remain sharp even as his doubts about Broth­er Leon’s meth­ods grow. This moment sets the stage for Archie’s ongo­ing inter­nal strug­gle, bal­anc­ing the need for con­trol with the demands of the increas­ing pres­sure sur­round­ing him.