Short Essay On The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a book that provides a sneak peek behind the scenes at the harmony before the havoc. The book provides a look at how one person fights through the battle of finding oneself, trying to fix a mistake they made, and how it affects those around them.The Chocolate War begins with the line “They murdered him.” An opening that, at first lead to confusion, then became an enormous point of foreshadowing in the story.The author begins by creating a sensory image of our characters playing football, getting injured, and leading the reader to believe that this is what the story would be about. The book really is leading the reader into a complex cast of characters ranging from a money hungry headmaster to a student

Jerry refused to give into the Vigils hazing. This was another upset in power due to the superiors in the universe being unable to control an inferior. He refused to give up and kept on fighting them at football, never giving into their tough hits, along with him not selling the chocolates. “Would you ask Renault why he isn’t selling the chocolates like everybody else’, Jerry paused, face flushed. ‘It’s a free country…’” (Cormier 148).This quote shows how strong and resilient Jerry was to keep from selling the chocolates.

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

There were a few points in this book that taught me about life and how crazy it can be sometimes. The photographer named Fulgencio was very afraid of hitch hiking to Mexico City with a stranger, especially with all of us expensive equipment. On the ride, Fulgencio is so paranoid that the guy is going to kill him, he grabs a machete out of the back of the truck. In doing so he gets kicked out of the car and loses all of his photography equipment anyways. This taught me that we need to trust each other more, Just because there are a few crazy people in the world, we shouldn't let them give us all a bad name. I mean, the guy picked Fulgencio up when he was in desperate need of a car, and gives him a ride. He should have been thankful, not picked up a machete and threaten the guy. Another thing this book taught me was that just because your sister doesn't want your kid anymore because she

Jerry is haunted by his unimportance. He is unable to regain his composure after he overplays his rebellious actions. Defying the Vigils and Trinity takes its toll. Although

I wouldn’t recommend this book to the average reader. It is a bit hard to read because the author goes into so much depth that the reader could very often forget the main idea. It is a good, informative book but a bit drawn out.

It captured my attention from the beginning. I like how the Rand was descriptive words to help me have an image of what was happening in the novel. I like the story line. I like the idea of someone breaking way from everyone else and being different from others. That they are able to think for themselves and that it is ok to be different from others. I also liked how the novel had some romance because I do enjoy romance novels. The Language Police written by Diane Ravitch, I did not quit enjoy the book. I do not really like books like that. I do not recommend this book if you are not interested in how the bias panel chooses stories for children. I do recommend the novel, Anthem. It gives the reader a sense of individualism, there is a story behind

Overall, the book is really good and sticks to those three main ideas of courage, weakness and truth throughout it. As both a reader and a writer (I write my own little novels) this book is really goods and i would recommend it to anyone who asks

As the overall book, I actually kind of liked it because it was kind of hard to understand because they couldn’t use “I” and I like challenges. They had to use “We” instead of using “I” to explain they self or the story. The book was okay as a whole but still kind of hard to understand I got kind of irritated after a while, while I was reading the book because of the way it was written.

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.

Jerry demonstrates how powerful the ability to choose your own actions is. Kevin; a future vigils member was talking to Danny about how they wanted the freedom to not sell the chocolates as shown is this quote. “‘I think maybe that Renault kid’s got the right idea...and said he wasn’t going to sell the junk...I'm getting sick of selling stuff...the kids probably got the right idea’”(Cormier,112). They envy jerry, that he doesn’t have to sell the chocolates. They also wish they had the guts to stop selling the chocolates. But not selling the chocolates does come with a price to pay. “‘I won’t sell their chocolates whether they beat me up or not, and I'm not a fairy, not a queer’”(Cormier,173).

Many people often meet different characters in literature and in life that they admire or despise. They conclude if those characters are good or evil and at the same time they reflect on the choices and responsibilities that those characters have. From The Chocolate War I admire Roland Goubert or The Goober based on his actions. I despise Archie Costello (The Assigner of The Vigils) because of the choices that he made and also because of his actions.

Chocolate became “a respected scholarly subject” only in recent decades suffering from “puritanical prohibitions” of discussing food or writing about it that were recognized standards of behavior in the Western world. The reviewed book The True History of Chocolate is a valuable addition to what the public knows or, rather, does not know about chocolate, with an interesting historical background that makes an entertaining and useful reading and extends one’s knowledge of things we use daily, sometimes without realizing their long history of evolution and multiple meanings.