Analysis Of The Chocolate War By Robert Cormier

The first thing The Chocolate War highlights is the effects individuality has on the protagonist Jerry Renault throughout the story. After Jerry decides to not sell chocolates there seems to be a ripple effect of other students viewing him as a hero with kids slapping him on the butt and in the school that was a sign of respect. Then the chocolates become popular the whole thing backfires with the whole student body railing against him in hatred and disgust. “You think you’re better than we are?”(205pg Cormier) was used by a fellow student calling Jerry out in front of the class started a kind of fire with as spark and lit the kindling of disdain they had for him. By making his decision to be an individual the result is that it makes it hard to make any allies within the school with everyone falling to conformity.

The Chocolate War is a story which takes place in New England in the 1970's. Most of the events happen in a Catholic school. Since this school was exclusively for boys, they were constantly trying to prove their power over each other. The story is told in third person omniscient. The story's mood is suspenseful. With each page turn one wonders if Jerry will take or refuse his chocolates. The protagonist of this story is Jerry Renault and the antagonist in Archie Costello. Jerry is a very quiet fifteen year old boy. He is also the quarterback for the Trinity High junior varsity football team. He is a very troubled individual due to his mother's

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

On the eleventh day, when Jerry still does not accept the chocolates, when he says, “I’m not accepting the chocolates,” Jerry declares the chocolate war. He finds something in which to believe that will allow him to reach a sense of self-rule.

We all encounter chocolate in our daily life, and whether we want to admit it or not, chocolate has been a major part of history, and it is still seen today.

John Abbott a lawyer, statesman, and prime minister of Canada from 1891 to 1892 once said “Every man's ability may be strengthened or increased by culture.” (http://en.proverbia.net). This shows that every person’s personality is different because of their culture with examples like ‘My Favorite Chaperone’ by Jean Okimoto , and ‘The Chocolate War’ by Robert Cormier. Stories also explore what happens to culture when it attempts perfection and fails such as ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry. ‘My Favorite Chaperone’ explains how cultural differences create conflict in families. ‘The Chocolate War’ is a story about how school settings also have a culture that influences how students and faculty treat each other. The novel ‘The Giver’ gives an example of a dystopian society that tries equality and fails. In a compare and contrast of these texts, all the cultures determined what are the acceptable norms, the social and the degree of of punishment for breaking the standard which mirrors our cultures.

The Chocolate War is a book about a child named Jerry Renault who chooses to go against the system. He refuses to conform to the school gang The Vigils. But it was not banned instead it was made a mandatory read for seventh grade students. Due to the same reasons it was challenged. We must take this example that Chicago set and use it everywhere.

Thematic Essay In this book, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, a boy named Jerry Renault, the protagonist, tries to go against the whole school by refusing to sell chocolates that are required to be sold. However, Renault faces consequences as he is confronted with bullying and abuse from Archie and the Vigils. Jerry felt the pain that happens when he tried to “disturb the universe.” Bothering the natural order in a school can hurt you,

At the end, the problem for Rogers’ Chocolates becomes a question of if they lose age-old tradition and gain resources rapidly to expand their reach; or value who they are, and find alternative options to grow.

“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power” (John Steinbeck). This quote directly compares to the book, The Chocolate Wars that tells an extraordinary story about a boy, Jerry Renault who rebells against the dictators of the school, The Vigils and the corrupted staff. Jerry’s rebellion leads him to his doom in an organized fight watched by the school showing the student body how dangerous power really is. In the book, The Chocolate War, the author, Robert Cormier portrays the uneasy lesson of how simple it is for power to corrupt people into dangerous, manipulating rulers by revealing the lack of jurisdiction the student body possesses, by developing awareness of the power of The Vigils, the supremacy of the

Robert Cormier has chosen a pessimistic message for the novel. The Chocolate War is a

In The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier the combatant Jerry Renault, must endure many challenges against the enemy, he is challenged by a physiological bully and the leader which reign supreme at the high school he attends. Jerry is going to have a lot of tough challenges ahead of him and a group is always after him. Jerry is going to have another problem when a sale has started at his school. Jerry Renault is a fourteen year old freshman who goes to a all boys catholic school called trinity. He play football as a quarterback and likes to run track he always tries to be the good kid in school and get good grades.

The Chocolate War is a novel full of corrupt school spirit while they are fundraising to sell chocolates. There is little difference between teachers and students at Trinity High School because both teachers and students use psychological warfare, fear and manipulation. They both give assignments and punishments and they do not want their corrupt system to be disturbed.

Moreover, consumers and employees are also demanding chocolate companies to follow good corporate social responsibility practices in addressing the environmental concerns in terms of how to design its packaging, procurement and operational decisions. Human rights concerns are also high in terms of consumer expectations of chocolate companies with respect of forced child labour in West Africa. All of these driving forces - societal concerns, attitudes and change in lifestyles, are strong enough to shape up the competition and impose the constraint on chocolate industry profitability and competitive survival.

There is a very large majority of material written and taken down about the Iraq/Afghan war, and our libraries hold majority of these works of literature. This is a book review of the book “War” which is authored by Sebastian Junger and published by Hatchett Book Group in May of 2010. Sebastian Junger was an “embedded” reporter with the 2nd Platoon, Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade for Vanity Fair magazine, and was entirely dependent on the U.S. military for food, shelter, security, and transportation.1