| The Chocolate War (By Robert Cormier) Essay, Research Paper
THE CHOCOLATE WAR By Robert Cormier Jerry Renault is a freshman at Trinity, a Catholic boy’ High school. . He has a poster in his locker that says, “Do I dare disturb my universe?” Jerry dares, rather he defies Archie, the leader of the Vigils. The Vigils is like a fraternity that controls life at Trinity far more than the teachers do. Jerry dares by refusing to sell chocolates during the annual school fundraiser. He also defies Brother Leon, the acting headmaster, and he defies anyone who won’t stand with him, he stands alone. Jerry’s “plan” to refuse to sell chocolates for the school’s annual fundraiser. For the school to make any kind of a profit, each boy will have to sell fifty boxes, and now, because of Jerry’s refusal, that goal is in jeopardy! Brother Leon’s greed will be exposed if something isn’t done soon! When Brother Leon proposes a school wide chocolate sale to raise money for Trinity, most of the students cooperate, some out of enthusiasm and some out of fear. Jerry obeys, and at first he’s the only one who won’t sell the chocolate, the only one who’s ever said ‘no’. But his refusal has an unexpected result, all the other boys begin to drop out of the selling contest too, the sales begin to fall and Brother Leon panics. This nonconformist refusal leads Jerry into a cruel chain of events involving Archie Costello, the leader of the Vigils. Archie is the Assignor for the Vigils, in charge of the “initiation tasks” that every boy in school must complete sooner or later.When the ten days of Jerry’s assignment are up, Archie, the leader of the vigils, orders him to start selling the over priced chocolates, but still Jerry refuses. He isn’t even sure why. Archie and Brother Leon, the ringleader and the headmaster, are ready to destroy the freshman that has defied them, any way they can. But Jerry can’t know how serious his refusal really is–or to what lengths Brother Leon will go to get the candy sold, or how much power Archie really has. Then Brother Leon asked Archie to see if he could make it look like selling chocolates is cool. I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War. After reading the last word and closing the book, I wanted to read the novel again without knowing what would happen next. This book is so well written I liked almost everything about the story. I particularly liked the characterization of Brother Jacques. He has a small part, and represents noble qualities in people. Unlike Brother Leon, he does not favor the Vigils. The Vigils is some what a fraternity school group that few of the teachers liked. Toward the end of this book there was a fight, a confusing fight. It was confusing because it was planned and there were rules The stadium was packed and raffle tickets are being sold, and in the center there is the boxing ring and in that boxing ring there are two men Jerry and Emile. At one part of the book Emile messed up Brother Eugene class. Let me explain Emile is the kind of guy which in t he olden day was known as “A bully.”What I meant by saying he messed up Brother Eugene’s class. Is he unscrewed all the desks and chairs and when everyone went to sit down the chairs and desks fell apart.
The Chocolate War involves many conflicts. One suspenseful conflict is when Archie is reaching into the black box, the marbles inside will determine his fate. Robert Cormier could not have written this book more detailed. The setting of the main character’s apartment is vague. There is not much description as he is rarely at home. I would like to know the size and whether there was much decoration. This is the only problem I can find to criticize. I recommend this book to males since this book deals with a boy’s school and a boy’s problems. A female can enjoy The Chocolate War, but I believe this work is aimed at male teenagers. A romantic person who likes happy endings should not read this story.I now appreciate that my soon to be school is different from Trinity High School. This book would make an excellent movie; however, books usually have more depth and are better. For example the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is far more detailed and exciting than the movie. The author intended the title, The Chocolate War because the book is about a “war” between a higher-class person and the lower class. The setting is split between the Archie’s home and his school. . The majority of the time he is at school. The setting is not really important in this book. Although the setting is always important in almost all books, but some books need a very good plot for their book to be successful. In this book, it isn’t important. The Chocolate War taught some good lessons, such as inner peace can help solve a lot of someone’s problems. Another lesson would be that people who are cruel are just taking their unhappiness out on others.. As you already know the Vigils were asked to sell fifty candy bars each. Some people didn’t listen because they didn’t feel like selling fifty chocolates they thought that fifty chocolates were too many. The beginning hooked me into reading it more, toward the middle of this novel, there was very useless material used. Well it is certain that you can’t judge a book by its cover, the illustration on the paperback edition of The Chocolate War makes you think the book is mainly about football and all that boring stuff. The picture that is on the cover is a teenage football player standing dejected, reflecting on his shadow. In the back round there is a cloudy field. I think this book deals with society in many different ways. In The Chocolate War many male cruelties are explained. This made me think about things like cruelty and how people can be mistreated. I even discussed some of the book with my parents. The mood of this story is very realistic. The mood is never changes through out the whole book. Someone can wonder if things could get worse, and they can. The events get drearier and crueler. The mood helps set the suspense for the ending of the book. When the Goober, Jerry’s best friend, calls an ambulance for Jerry after the fight. As I said in the previous paragraph, the book relates to males. Therefore, I would recommend this book to a male thirteen years of age and above. When a book leaves you feeling that way, you begin to think. Young people should definitely read this book.
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