A Literary Analysis of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War Essay

In The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, Roland Groubert or the “Goober” functions as a foil to the protagonist Jerry Renault. In other words, Goober is a close friend of Jerry who possesses contrasting character traits when compared to the character traits possessed by Jerry. As a result, the contrast of their personalities further develops Jerry’s character.

Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. There can be multiple conflicts in a story. This is the case in Of Mice and Men. In chapters three and four, there are man vs. man, man vs. self, and man vs. society conflicts. As George and Lennie interact with the workers on the ranch, sometimes conflicts arise between them.

Robert Cormier wanted the characters be different, he did not make them how others wanted, being socially acceptable, he wrote the book how he thought it should have went in his mind, and doing so he gave the readers some new to read not just the everyday novel. Cormier gives the reader many examples of figurative language to express the real meaning of the story for example, “Caroni watched the chalk in Brother Leon’s hands, the way the teacher pressed it, rolled it, his fingers like the legs of spiders with a victim in their clutch.” (90) In this quote Cormier gives a similar to exaggerate about how Brother Leon was holding the chalk in his hands. It sends a powerful message to the reader that Brother Leon is a horrible man, who had no mercy and he is seen by others as a powerful administrator in the school using quid-pro-quo in his own evil type of way. Cormier also uses more figurative language to give a specific emotion that Cormier was trying to express throughout his novel, that not every time someone disturbs the universe something good comes out of it. “What happened with Renault was bad enough, but there was violence in the air.”(209) This quote is the the example that even though Renault did disturb the universe and did try to stop the chocolate sale, he failed and something bad happened to him for trying. In the end Jerry's attempts to stop the chocolate sales failed, and still there was still violence in the air meaning the enemy he tried to defeat was angry, but still undefeated. And many readers dislike Cormiers way to end the book in a way that the hero does not defeat the villain(s). Like Richard Peck said ”The young will understand the outcome. They won’t like it but they’ll understand.” (10) And this is exactly what Cormier had in mind when he was writing the book, that the readers wouldn’t like the ending, but

Jerry keeps the troubling situation secret at home because he doesn’t want to bother his dad with it since his mom died not too long ago, as Obie pointed out in chapter 2. Jerry doesn’t talk to his dad about anything because he doesn’t want his dad to have to deal with the drama of the chocolate sales and pain of getting beat up. This is not only seen in chapter 32 on page 219 when it states “Compassion for his father welled in Jerry. Should he tell his father what it was was all about? But he didn’t want to involve him.”, but it’s also seen in chapter 34 on page 225 where it says “He didn’t want his father’s universe to be disturbed and he wanted his own to be put in order again.”

An example of person vs. society in the story is when the Duvitches just moved into the little town, they were immigrants, everyone made fun of them and bullied them. The other conflict that happened was person vs. self, an example of this in the story is when Andy put the soap in the tub off water with fish, and killed them off.

The group looks down upon expressing your opinion and equality of the people. Their leader, Archie Costello, assumes that without their supreme authority over the school, the school would fall apart, which is false to begin with. The first quote just shows how dangerous and how easy it is for the wrong person to become powerful. In a similar fashion, the second quote highlights the unscrupulous staff member, Brother Leon. After Jerry became aware of Brother Leon’s alliance with The Vigils he made the remark comparing teachers to corrupt villains.

The Chocolate War Essay In the Novel, “The Chocolate War”, a character in the book, Archie Costello, uses psychological kind of fear to control other people, unlike Emile Janza who uses physical fear to control people. In real life different kinds of people use different ways to control people by using fear. Some use force some use psychological fear, etc. Some people use force and psychological fear because they want to control people.

The climax stage comes fairly late in the story. It is associated with the assembly The Vigils create in which Jerry fights Emile Janza for the chance to get back to everyone who has been bothering him and creating problems for backing out of the annual sale. Both Brother Leon and The Vigils by the end are frustrated due to the fact that Jerry will not accept his share in the chocolate sale. This is a threat to both their abilities to control the student body. Jerry's refusal to participate is seen by others as being bold. Jerry therefore gets attacked both physically and mentally. His locker and possessions are vandalized, he gets prank called, and even beat down after practice. Archie tells Emile Janza to punish Jerry, but Jerry maintains

Unfortunately, the entering of the chocolate world feels disconnected from the story of saving Trevin and the others at the tire factory. In fact, the story feels like it’s more about the tire factory than the chocolate world.

Now, they are eighteen or nineteen being drafted into the war. McEwan uses the word amo which means love presumably because the chocolate will remind the soldiers of their home and thor innocence lost from the horrors of war over time. Paul sells

The following day, they had to keep moving their base north. Every soldier travelled at their own exhausted pace, but Hershey trailed in the back of the group. He was as fatigued as the night when he had to finish his research paper. When the group had decided to stop and rest, Hershey had been relieved. He sat in small ditch in order to stay cool, and most importantly, he sat in the ditch in order to salvage the last of his chocolate ration. The Cadbury’s ration bar had already been soft when it had first been given out. Now, it had practically dissolved into the wrapper and his hands in the harsh sunlight. Taking only a small, cracked off piece, Hershey placed the pitiful remnants back into the wrapper, unwilling to enjoy the last of the confectionary. He tried not to think too much about the bitterness of the chocolate, or how his parents’ sweets shop in Iowa was substantially more delicious and filling. Nevertheless, it remained on his mind until the chocolate had dissolved in his mouth.. Noticing that some of the soldiers were already moving back towards the trail, he got up, and tucked the chocolate into his hat, and found his way back to the

I believe you can interpret the chocolate as a metaphor for God in this movie. If the goal of the film is indeed trying to use the chocolate as a metaphor for God, I think that the film is trying to show God in a more spiritual way than religious. This is because each characters experience with the chocolate is different and personal. Every character prefers a different type, and the chocolate affect the characters in diverse, but positive ways. Armande becomes more content with her life, Josephine gets the courage to leave her abusive husband and stay away from him, the mayor eventually accepts Vianne and her differences from the old ways of the village. The religious side of God is shown through the Church, the rules it imposes, and the influence

The first thing that stood out to me was that Jerry's mother had just passed away which was a very hard thing to over come. He is also becoming a stronger person because he has decided to stand against the universe, because he is tired of getting pushed around and told what to do. Also with the vigils breathing down his neck to complete the assignment of not selling for the chocolate sale was a big deal and put stress on him.

During the first few chapters of the book Jerry has a good behavior. He gets accepted in the football team and was doing well in his classes trying to be a good student. But what Jerry was dealing with was his mother’s death. Even his relationship with his father was not going so well. He would try to talk to his father; try to open up to his father. But it was like both of them had closed up and were not expressing how they really feel about things. The Vigils assign Jerry to not sell chocolate for 10 days. The reason why Jerry continues to not sell Chocolate even after his assignment is done is

Jerry Renault was a very influential and large part of the story in many ways. Jerry started out as a shy, nervous freshman. His mother had recently passed away, so he was always very quiet, and hardly ever was able to do anything with his father. When Jerry was first given the assignment from the Vigils to refuse the sale, Jerry was only doing it for the Vigils and was not trying to do something rebellious. However, once the assignment was over, and Jerry had more and more people support him and his decision to not sell, Jerry decided that not selling chocolates would be his way of "disturbing the universe," and making decisions for himself. Even the Goober is impressed at how brave Jerry is being and how unafraid he seems with any consequences