Essay on the order of things (chocolate war)

While at a movie theater, Dally is antagonizing and annoying several Soc girls. Johnny stands up to Dally, his hero, and states, “‘Leave her alone, Dally.’ ‘Huh?’ Dally was taken off guard. He stared at Johnny in disbelief. Johnny couldn't say ‘Boo’ to a goose. Johnny gulped and got a little pale, but he said, ‘You heard me. Leave her alone’” (24). It took all of Johnny’s bravery to stand up to his absolute idol. He was willing to stand up to a dangerous boy that could easily defeat him in a fight, to save others. Not only this, but when a church is burning down with children inside, Ponyboy states, ”Johnny wasn't behaving at all like his old self. ... he grinned at me. He wasn't scared either. That was the only time I can think of when I saw him without that defeated, suspicious look in his eyes” (92). Johnny gives his own life for kids who have futures. He charges into the church at full speed when necessary. Johnny becomes brave in the middle of the

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.

These chocolate sales raise money for the school and give more authority to Leon. The Brother then bribes people to sell chocolates. He eventually brings disaster to the school.

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

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 Johnny gasped and turned white as a ghost then red with rage. While all of the other boys were looking at the Ponyboy who was drowning, Johnny pulled a knife out of his back pocket, I gasped I knew what he was going to do seconds before he did it. “Wait!” I screamed, but the boy didn’t even acknowledge me. I turned around, I couldn’t watch. This reminded me too much of Yaqui beating me up, but this was different, these boys fought unlike we did. The way we fought it wasn’t killing each other or anything like that, but it was almost worse. Being humiliated in front of the whole school. Both Ponyboy and I got hurt though mine was both mentally and physically. The only other thing that I could see that connected our two lives was that we both fought back. Well actually Johnny fought for Ponyboy, but it’s pretty much the same, in the end the bullies both got what they deserved. No, that’s not true, nobody (even Yaqui Delgado) deserves to die. By the time I turned back around the boys were driving away in their car and the boy who had been killed was slumped on the ground not moving. The other boy; Johnny was helping to pull his friend; Ponyboy out of the water

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).

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 only has one friend throughout the entire story. The Goober is the only one who tries to stick up for Jerry. The Goober hates the vigils and does not agree with any of the things that they do. He tries not to sell the chocolates to show his support for Jerry, but the vigils mark that he did anyway. He also decides not to go to the boxing match because he does not want to get involved with the vigils or school

This is indicated when Archie gives Jerry an assignment, the assignment is a Vigil's assignment. "Jerry's refusal is because of The Vigils—he is to refuse the chocolates for ten days, and then accept them." Jerry is loyal to this assignment for the first ten days but after that Jerry still refuses to sell the chocolates. This causes Archie to punish Jerry, and it depicts how the students also give punishments. Archie gives another assignment to Goober, which is to partially unscrew every screw in the chairs and tables of Brother Eugene's room number nineteen. However, The Goober follows the assignment therefore showing no punishment. Similarly, the teachers demonstrate punishments when someone does something wrong. Brother Leon accuses Bailey for cheating because he gets straight A's. He threatens Bailey to a punishment. After Brother Leon has a talk with Bailey, he accuses the class for not sticking up for their classmate. Brother Leon gives everyone an assignment to sell fifty boxes of chocolates each. Thus, this manifests how teachers give out assignments. This system of assignments and punishments is so ingrained in the school that they do not want to disturb the

Forrest Gump’s quote about life being a box of chocolates is well known around the world; however, one when analyzes this, it unlocks an understanding of the film, and to a degree life as well. Almost everyone has eaten a box of chocolates in their life. However, no one individual has the knowledge or foresight to predict what type of chocolate they are going to eat when picking from the box. The piece of chocolate that one chooses can be either sweet, bitter or mediocre. When one chooses a chocolate from the box, they cannot put the chocolate back. This ideology shown here represents two major factors: that one will never know what will occur in the future, while we as humans are inherently filled with and ruled by uncertainty. Robert Zemeckis portrays this notion and demonstrates the box of chocolates as an important symbol in the film. Forrest Gump, is frequently shown holding a box of chocolates in the film. This shows the uncertainty of life, and that even though this uncertainty is present,

Goober tried to be loyal to Jerry whether anybody knew it and stop selling chocolate at 27 boxes, but The Vigils sold more in his name to make the quota. When Brian Cochran, “beside the name Roland

Being an individual is a very hard goal to achieve. In the book The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier the protagonist Jerry Renault is faced with the problem of whether or not he should stray away from society and become an individual or conform like the other kids. Jerry pays the price for not conforming in the end for something so little as being different. Being different is sometimes looked down upon in our society, therefore making life harder for people who choose to be different.

I admire Roland Goubert (The Goober) the most of all the characters within this book because he is honest, loving, and a loyal friend to Jerry. In the book when Jerry was refusing to sell the chocolates, Goober felt many feelings that Jerry was feeling. For