The novel "Chocolate": Flashing the Beauty of Human Nature explores freedom and acceptance

Chocolate is a novel by British writer Joanna Harris, first published in 1999.

Don't be "misled" by the name, Chocolate is not a romance novel, but mainly explores the beauty, freedom, tolerance, acceptance, love and redemption of those human beings.

The story is about a single mother who takes her daughter to a strange city town but is not accepted, and in order to survive, she opens a chocolate shop. Her chocolate not only tastes good, but also seems to have a brave magic. Eventually, the townspeople are infected and start a whole new life.

The work is a novel in the form of a diary, there are no major ups and downs in the plot, and most of the time it seems to be narrated and dialogued in a flat tone.

In the roaring north wind, Vivian and her daughter Anouk walk into a calm and isolated town, and the chocolate they bring makes this place that has been almost unchanged for hundreds of years flood with sweet waves. The beautiful Vivian seems to have magical powers, able to understand the preferences and tastes of everyone in the town and satisfy their secret desires. In her shop, there is no love, find warmth; no home, you can live here and drink a cup of warm hot chocolate; the bullied, also find courage in the chocolate made by Vian herself. The closed, gray town has regained a touch of color and vitality.

　　However, the stubborn conservative forces in the town, led by the priest Renault, regard her as an outlier, lest Vian destroy their traditional values and lives. Vian's chocolate shop is located directly opposite the church, and the two are tentatively testing and secretly competing with each other.

　　The arrival of the wanderers on the river further disturbed the town's calm, and its leader, Locks, disturbed Vian's heart. Gradually, she discovers that the priest has a secret past that no one knows, perhaps his fatal weakness. And eventually changed the pastor's conservative and rigid selfish values.

Novel background

The 15th and early 18th centuries were a period of transition from a traditional medieval society to a modern society in Europe, during which a series of major events such as the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Technological Revolution took place, during which the Gypsies, who originated from the nomadic peoples of northern India and began to enter Europe in the early 1400S AD, experienced the persecution of paganism by Christianity during the period of change in Western thought towards enlightenment. This persecution not only threatened and coerced and changed the way of life of Jews, Arabs, Moors and other peoples, but also involved the European witch hunt movement, which believed that witches were conspiring to destroy Christian societies and that women were the main victims. Faced with a cruel fate, among the many crippled peoples, the Gypsies bravely fought against suffering, lived strongly, and escaped the religious persecution that threatened their lives and the safety of their lives. "Thick Chocolate" tells the history of the blood and tears of the persecution of pagans through the narrative of the diary.

The author grew up in the candy shop of his maternal grandparents, whose great-grandmother was a well-known wizard. "Thick Chocolate" is her work dedicated to her great-grandmother.

Creation and Acceptance

Never stop pursuing growth and happiness

The simple story of the work is full of allegory. Everyone has a nature to pursue happiness, but they are always bound by some shackles and shackles. However, the desire for good cannot be suppressed forever. The mother and daughter who came to the town were like a stone thrown into the lake when they first arrived, causing ripples. The rich taste of chocolate makes everyone who comes to the small shop get sensory and spiritual satisfaction and joy. The residents of the town go from resisting to receiving to changing, as if a magical magic story has opened the shackles of the imprisoned soul, and the town has changed from "colorless" to "colorful".

For the mother and son, they finally ended the wandering and built their new home here.

Just like everyone's growth, the price of growth may be that one day they will leave their familiar home and find another world of their own. While not everyone will make delicious chocolates like the heroine, everyone can be as strong as she is, can keep smiling and positive energy in the face of challenges and difficulties, and will drive and infect those around her.