**Chap­ter Thir­ty-Six Sum­ma­ry:**

In this piv­otal chap­ter of “The Choco­late War,” Archie Costel­lo rev­els in the excite­ment of a raf­fle he’s orches­trat­ed, which involves a fight between two stu­dents, Renault and Jan­za. The con­cept is sin­ful­ly cap­ti­vat­ing, appeal­ing to the greed and cru­el­ty that Archie iden­ti­fies in his peers. As he inspects the raf­fle tick­ets filled out by stu­dents des­per­ate to root for their cho­sen fight­er, he feels a sense of con­trol and author­i­ty, rel­ish­ing the sub­mis­sive­ness of oth­ers. The audi­ence’s antic­i­pa­tion for the fight inten­si­fies, and Archie is pleased to see that the tick­ets are sell­ing out rapid­ly, con­firm­ing his manip­u­la­tion of the sit­u­a­tion.

Carter, a fel­low stu­dent, rec­og­nizes the appeal of the fight as he grap­ples with his mixed feel­ings about join­ing in. The deep­er con­flict aris­es as Carter is trou­bled by Archie’s per­spec­tive that peo­ple are inher­ent­ly greedy and cru­el, ques­tion­ing if he too has suc­cumbed to these traits. Despite his dis­com­fort, he enjoys the thrill of the event that Archie has orches­trat­ed, push­ing him fur­ther into self-doubt.

As the fight approach­es, the ten­sion crescen­dos when Obie presents the leg­endary black box, a device that could deter­mine Archie’s fate in the fight, since he must draw mar­bles for the two con­tes­tants. Archie, with con­fi­dence in his luck, approach­es the box, dis­miss­ing any thoughts of los­ing con­trol. Unbe­knownst to him, Obie and Carter have planned for this moment to infuse sus­pense and dra­ma into the event, attempt­ing to under­mine Archie’s con­fi­dence.

The cer­e­mo­ny cul­mi­nates in Archie draw­ing mar­bles in a swift action that sur­pris­es both the audi­ence and Obie. He suc­cess­ful­ly draws white mar­bles, fuel­ing his brava­do as he faces the crowd, fur­ther embed­ding him­self into the role of the pup­peteer who con­tin­ues to manip­u­late those around him with­out hes­i­ta­tion. The chap­ter explores themes of pow­er, con­trol, and the dark­er aspects of human nature, encap­su­lat­ing the unset­tling atmos­phere of the event while empha­siz­ing Archie’s unwa­ver­ing self-assur­ance.