The Changes Of Jerome Renault 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.

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.

| Tom wants his old life back prior to the accident and he sees the accident as the end of his life as he knew it. He loses his sense of identity and sense of family in particular.Feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences his brother’s irresponsibility had for other people and their familiesRetreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black.

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

Initially, our first thoughts of Jerry at the beginning of the story, is that he acts immature and is burdened within a circle of maternal protection. During the opening of the story, the author conveys Jerry’s relative childishness by labeling him as “the boy”. The author also uses the mother to demonstrate his youth and how he is trapped in a circle of maternal protection which leads us to think that he is lonely due to that reason. In this part, “His mother walks in front of him, carrying a bright white strap in one hand” tells us that because the mother was walking in front of him, it gives us the impression that the mother still thinks of him as a boy that needs to be protected from any potential harm. We see more of Jerry’s immaturity and how the burden of protection leads his actions as we go through the story. During the part where Jerry sees the group of boys acting free-spirited, we see that he is overcome with desire to be with them, probably because he feels that because he is always in the circle of protection making him feel lonely and isolated from everyone. At first, he is added into the group and begins to have fun jumping from the cliff into the water with the other boys. Later on however, he starts to act immature when he realizes he could not do the same thing the other boys were doing. That was, underwater for a long time and going through the dark tunnel and he becomes scared. In this passage,“... In a panic of failure, he yelled up, in English, “Look at me! Look!” and he began splashing and kicking the water like a

Jerry, despite his relative decency, is victimized by the power structure of the school as well as his peers (Bagnall). “Choosing to disturb the universe means that Jerry himself is thrown into chaos” (Junko). His refusal to conform makes him the prime target of both the Vigils and the school officials, despite admiration from his peers. Cormier makes it clear that moral individuals can not survive unaided in a corrupt, oppressive system (Harris et al.). Jerry, while standing up for what he believes is right, is constantly torn down and abused by Archie’s goons. No one, not even his best friend Goober, came to his rescue to combat his oppressors. Arguably, “the reason Jerry was not saved was because he stood alone” (Harris et al.). Jerry stood alone in refusing to take the chocolates, his abuse by the Vigils, and his eventual physical and mental destruction by Janza. In fact, his destruction makes him into a martyr. His surrender in the end makes him an even more realistic hero and shows that it takes more people to fight powerful figures (Peck). Cormier challenges the perception of the modern “Superman” figure and replaces him with an “Average Joe”: a jack of all trades but master at none. Despite his defeat, Jerry’s legacy will live beyond him, whether publicly celebrated or privately discussed by Trinity students (Siegler). Jerry’s battle could have been won if his peers acted against the power structures as

The characterization of Jerry illustrates the stages of maturing and becoming independent. In the beginning of the story, Jerry is depicted as young and immature. The immaturity of Jerry is shown when he is trying to capture the older boys’ attention. In order to capture their attention, “he began splashing and kicking in the water like a foolish dog.” This action conveys that Jerry is still immature, and wants to join the older kids. After seeing the boys pass through the tunnel, Jerry also wants to pass through in order to be a part of their group. In order

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,

Jerry’s job is a helicopter pilot that looks for news and stories for the television. While Jerry has been looking for stories for his news feed, he has saved many lives along the way. When someone saves a person, they are bringing others closer together. By saving lives, Jerry has brought others together in seeing how easy it is to get lost or lose your life in dangerous landforms or adverse conditions.

His mother was not given a name, there was no background story given to her, and it merely states that she "died last spring. Cancer." (Cormier 14) No mercy is shown for Jerry’s loss, as if this loss is not in any way significant at all. His own father also expresses no feeling of loss or depression, especially with the loss of someone who would be expected to be the love of his life. "You finish school, found an occupation, got married, became a father, watched your wife die, and then live through days and nights that seem to have no sunrises, no dawns, and no dusks, nothing but a gray drabness." (Cormier 64)

Jerry was a young boy. He was upset at how little he could do to influence the world. He was quite wise, yet quite dumb from time to time, but those kind of issues did not concern Jerry at all. He didn't care whether he had friends, or whether he had potential. All Jerry cared about was being involved, and he thought that people of the same rank could do anything-anything.

“Archie just dug his own grave.” As Obie and Carter start talking at the bus stop. He has been in his little castle for long enough and it is time to get rid of him. After his little stunt with Jerry and Emile he is lucky to even be going to school anymore. As Carter and Obie hopped on the bus they saw that Jerry was riding so they sat next to him. “Hey Jerry, how you feeling.” Jerry was hesitant to respond. His body couldn’t take another beating. Carter said in a softer tone of voice “ Jerry we need you help to ruin archie’s life.” Jerry slowly raised his head and looked destroyed. His light for life was low if not even existent at this time. Obie say a flicker in Jerry's eye which told him that he wanted revenge. Obie exchanged locations

You can put a band-aid on a cut but nothing can heal your mind. Within The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, Archie Costello’s psychological tactics of violence are more useful than Emile Janza’s physical tactics. Archie manipulates the student body of Trinity with mind games such as the assignments. Meanwhile, Emile is not very manipulative, he uses brutal and physically hurtful ways to get to people. Archie is more effective of getting what he wants with using his tactics of mind games, rather than Emile’s brutal ways.