The Corrupted In The Chocolate War

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 major conflict in The Chocolate War is the conflict between Jerry and Archie. Archie has assigned Jerry to decline his share of chocolates to sell for ten days. Jerry carries out this assignment; but on the eleventh day he continues to decline the chocolates. Archie reminds Jerry that he is only to decline for ten days. Jerry continues to disobey. He is committing ultimate betrayal; he is intentionally ignoring the orders of The Vigils. Archie and Jerry become enemies, and they continuously quarrel. Archie finally orders a fight between Emile, a Vigil wannabe, and Jerry.

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, 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

These stereotypes of teachers inspire the general public by showing a “fairy-tale version” of what truly happens in the classroom. The movies make it look like there is always some huge triumph at the end of the day and everyone ends up learning what they need to learn. This does not always mean learning the classroom material. Breault states that in most of the movies studied the teachers are more focused on teaching life lessons as opposed to the basic knowledge that should be taught in the classroom. The article also discusses how the teaches are viewed as heroes who save the students and advocate for them outside of the classroom. The teachers in the movies are praised for never teaching with a textbook or teaching regular course curriculum. The pictures show that the real live classroom is a lot more structured than what is portrayed in

The first thing I will talk about in this book is the positive and negative effects of physical contact with your students. Michie, the main character, was in an incident where he was accused of touching a student inappropriately. Although the truth was revealed that he didn’t do what he was accused of, it shows how physical contact with a student can have a negative impact on a teacher’s career. Even though Michie was merely trying to console a person, children look for attention in any way they can find. This incident nearly cost Michie his job, but at the same time, a big part of teaching is showing the kids you care for them. Michie believes it is hard to care for people if you keep them at arm’s length, and I agree. Physical contact is an

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,

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.

Fear also played a factor throughout this story. Fear is what made the Goober go into Brother Eugene’s room and loosen all of the screws from the furniture. This brings us back to the psychological bullying of Archie, because the Goober was mentally sick when he found out that the actions of his assignment had made Brother Eugene sick. The other students were also frightened by the Vigils so they to carried out any assignments that they were given. This story is written with a lot of hidden symbols and meanings within the events that occur. Jerry also feared the Vigils at first but as the story

In another scene, the teacher takes the students out for a jog around the town. The teacher doesn't even notice that his students are running off course and out of his sight. This shows his lack of leadership and ability to properly supervise children. Antoine's teacher is also impatience. In another particular scene, Antoine's teacher severely humiliates him.

     The ten days are up for Jerry. He can finally be like everyone else and sell the chocolates. But as Brother Leon asks the boys about their chocolates in homeroom, Jerry still does not take the chocolates. His only friend, The Goober, tries to convince him to take the chocolates. “‘I just can’t. I’m committed now... It’s not The Vigils, Goob. They’re not in it anymore. It’s me’” (Cormier 122). This is when Jerry begins to “disturb the universe.” A meaningful and symbolic poster in Jerry’s locker has a man walking alone and has the inscription “Do I dare disturb the universe?” (Cormier 123).      

When the chocolate sale really starts to kick off Brother Leon ask each boy if they were going to sale chocolates or not. Everyone says yes, until Brother Leon gets to Jerry and Jerry says no because the Vigils gave he him the assignment of saying no. We now know that Jerry has accepted the assignment from the Vigils. Brother Leon tries to convince Jerry to sale the chocolates but Jerry still says no and refuses, which angers Brother Leon. Everyone else has agreed to sale the chocolates, so they are shocked when Jerry says no to selling them.

In today’s society, the relationship between teacher and pupil is widely acknowledged to be an extremely professional one. According to an online article, The Positive Teacher – Student Relationships, there are certain characteristics which make up a good teacher pupil relationship. “Good communications, respect in a classroom…interest in teaching from the point of view of the teacher and learning from a student will establish a positive relationship in the classroom.” In Entre les Murs, François tries to establish this kind of relationship with his class, but he finds it difficult as the class are not all willing to engage with him. At times he is very pessimistic. François does not have high hopes for his class, he does not think they are willing to strive to achieve great things therefore he teachers them the basic, bland school work and does not attempt to encourage and engage them. We see an example of this in

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.

The education habits of students are rooted in them from the earliest days of their educational careers. The different influences on students, whether it be inside educational institutions, or outside is huge. The teacher of a classroom is the first and most pertinent influence in a student's educational career. Teachers provide students with the basic skills they would need to survive not only in the academic world, but also the world beyond. The relationship between teachers and their students is the key element in creating an educational atmosphere that is both pleasant and effective.