In Chap­ter Thir­ty-Two of “The Choco­late War,” the pro­tag­o­nist, Jer­ry, expe­ri­ences a tumul­tuous emo­tion­al state fol­low­ing a bru­tal beat­ing from his peers. He reflects on his vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and phys­i­cal pain, feel­ing an over­whelm­ing need for safe­ty. As he lies in the dark, mem­o­ries of his moth­er flood his mind, bring­ing tears to his eyes. Despite the sever­i­ty of his bruis­es, he resolves not to suc­cumb to the pres­sures of his class­mates and refuse to sell choco­lates, assert­ing his defi­ance against their bul­ly­ing.

As he nav­i­gates home, Jer­ry feels an acute sense of shame and fear, mask­ing his injuries and keep­ing his col­lar up to avoid being seen as a vic­tim. The bus ride is com­posed of elder­ly pas­sen­gers, who over­look his dis­tress. He arrives home weary and enters a qui­et space, long­ing to mend emo­tion­al­ly and phys­i­cal­ly. Jer­ry seeks solace in a bath, try­ing to alle­vi­ate the pain in his bones, par­tic­u­lar­ly glad that his father isn’t home to wit­ness his injuries.

The tele­phone’s relent­less ring­ing dis­rupts the still­ness, caus­ing anx­i­ety with­in Jer­ry as he feels pres­sured to respond, want­i­ng to demon­strate his strength. When he final­ly answers, he is met only with silence fol­lowed by mock­ing laugh­ter, fur­ther deep­en­ing his sense of iso­la­tion. He recalls dis­tant voic­es call­ing his name, rem­i­nis­cent of child­hood inno­cence, but they turn into taunts that echo through the night.

The atmos­phere shifts as Jer­ry peeks out and wit­ness­es the shad­ows of boys out­side, a chill­ing reminder of his cur­rent real­i­ty. He feels par­a­lyzed by the fear of con­fronta­tion, a stark con­trast to his ear­li­er years of care­free play. Far­ther into the night, inter­rup­tions come at inter­vals, lead­ing to inter­ac­tions with his father who remains con­cerned yet weary. His father’s fatigue high­lights the toll that the harass­ment takes on both of them.

In this emo­tion­al land­scape, Jer­ry grap­ples with the deci­sion to shield his father from addi­tion­al bur­dens while strug­gling to find a sense of peace amidst tur­moil. As he tries to sleep, the ring­ing con­tin­ues to plague his dreams, under­scor­ing the per­va­sive anx­i­ety that defines his life in this moment. The chap­ter encap­su­lates Jer­ry’s inter­nal con­flict between vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and defi­ance, secu­ri­ty and fear.