The Chocolate War Author: Robert Cormier | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BRUQ51A | Format: EPUB
The Chocolate War Description
Jerry Renault is just a freshman the all-boys Trinity School, but from his first football tryout, he’s tough enough to catch the attention of the Vigils, the most powerful clique at Trinity, and its leader Archie Costello. Jerry is a smart kid, who wants to make a difference, find his own way in the world. When the school’s annual chocolate sale/fund-raiser is announced, he doesn’t think his refusal to sell chocolates is going to be such a big deal, but it immediately divides the school. Some think Jerry’s stand is heroic, but Archie thinks that Jerry needs to be taught a lesson. Needs to be broken. And Archie knows just how to do it.
This classic novel gives a shocking look at the traditions of high school and the psychological warfare of bullying. And the unspoken complicity that adults provide in order to maintain appearances. This unflinching depiction of a boys’ boarding school, The Chocolate War is considered by many to be the first true YA novel.
- File Size: 2326 KB
- Print Length: 274 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0440944597
- Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (March 19, 2013)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BRUQ51A
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,179 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #30
in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Peer Pressure
- #30
in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Peer Pressure
It's difficult to review "The Chocolate War" because so much has already been said about it. The painful story of one boy's steadfast refusal to sell chocolates for his high school, and the consequences he faces for such a decision is as brilliant and difficult to read as ever. This isn't to say that the book is difficult to read stylistically. Instead, it's a well written tour de force that slyly invites the reader to know more about the characters, even as the situations described grow worse and worse.
Cormier is to be commended for creating one of the world's first young adult psychological thrillers. Though the end of the book does disintegrate into needless violence, most of this story concerns mental anguishes and locked horns as characters vie for superiority over their fellows without fisticuffs. There's some interest in figuring out who the book's protagonist is too. Our sympathies lie, of course, with poor Jerry Renault. Here's the single man poised to challenge the universe around him. Then there's Archie Costello. Leader of the school's secret society and an interesting portrait of someone both evil and amazingly confident he works his hardest to bring Renault down. Both boys (men?) fight. One for what he believes is right, and the other for his own selfish desires. In the end, it is difficult to accept that the man who has ended up on top is entirely less deserving.
The book's downbeat ending, in which our hero declares that it is never wise to buck the system, has always brought the book under a certain amount of fire. Adults who read this book find themselves trying to shield it from their own kids. Which is, of course, patently ridiculous.
It was almost time for the biggest event of the year at Trinity High School, the chocolate sale. There is one problem, they had to sell twice as many boxes as the past year, and for twice the amount of money. The head of the school, Brother Leon, asks of Archie Costello and the Vigils' help to sell that much chocolate. Archie assures Brother Leon of his support, and agrees to help sell all of the chocolate. The Vigils are a group of students that don't officially exist, although everybody knows they do. They have all of the power in the school, whatever they want to happen, happens. For a strange reason, it is like they have a power over the teachers also. What they mainly do is pick children, usually lower-classmen, to complete one of their assignments. Although Carter, a popular athlete, is the President of the Vigils, the true leader is the Assignor, Archie Costello. Archie is very slick, he is always two steps ahead of everybody he is talking to, and nobody can ever deceive him. The first assignment within the book is assigned to a freshman called Goober. He is assigned to sneak into room nineteen, Brother Eugene's room, when everybody is gone. In his room Goober is to loosen every screw in his room to where it will fall out if anything touches it. Likewise, the assignment is completed. The next morning everybody comes into room nineteen and the disaster occurs. All of the desks collapse, even when a book is placed on one. When Brother Eugene enters the room, he hurries to his desk, and that collapses also. He is a wreck and is never seen again. Of course, Goober feels bad about what he has done. When it is finally time for the chocolate sale, Jerry Renault, another freshman, gets a note in his locker to attend the next Vigil meeting.
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