The Chocolate War

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Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: The Chocolate War, the novel by Robert Cormier, is a well-written and interesting tale, but the story of Jerry Renault, Trinity High School, the students who attended it, and the administration, had a very dark and negative atmosphere through out the whole book. The Chocolate War is a story about an outsider (Jerry Renault) in high school that didn't cause much excitement, until his refusal to sell chocolates. This book is over-come with greed and cruelty towards each student, but also the administration. The Chocolate War has many elements... This was a well thought-out book, but I thought that the story dragged on and was boring. This book makes you think more, but it's very odd and sometimes doesn't make that much sense. I would say that if you want to broaden your reading selection and read a more demanding book, read The Chocolate War.

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Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: The Chocolate War is an extremely well written book. My favorite thing about this book is the mood the author sets. There is a sense of sadness and deariness in every chapter. This mood makes one think about life and cruelty. The Chocolate War taught some great lessons, such as inner peace can help solve a lot of one's problems. Another lesson one can learn from this book is that, people who are Cruel are just taking their unhappines out on others. Like when Archie is mad about his life, but takes his unhappines out on Jerry. This book talks a lot about how power can be abused. Archie Costello is my example of a person who abuses power. He forces Jerry into selling chocolates, even though he refuses to sell it. Archie also yells at Obie a lot, trying to treat him like his slave. I recommend this book to mostly males because it mostly relates to male's issues. The theme of The Chocolate War would have to be, being a noncomformist can make you an outcast by most people, and it can sometimes even bring harm to you. This book is a lot ike Fahrenheit 451.

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Summary: Will I dare to disturb the universe??
Review: "Do I dare disturb the universe?".....a chilling quote from a classic book , The Chocolate War. I was assigned this book in English a week ago.....I wasnt too thrilled. The setting of the story is the 70's in an all boys Catholic school...To, me there were two ataganists...Archie and Brother Leon....very very few good people in this book.....

My hero from now on is Jerry Renault.....I wish people like him actually existed...people that do everything their way instead of society or tradition.....I thought that was the theme...

The whole book seemed to be floating around "the Vigils" and their utmost power in the school......and ofcourse the novel floated around the damned chocolates....The vigils made it a fad to sell chocolates....

People are sheep.....do i dare disturb the universe? ofcourse.......

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Summary: The War of Chocolate
Review: "The Chocolate War" has many different elements to it. The entire story is told in third person, events are told in chronological order, and some characters appear in only a few chapters throughout the novel, giving most readers an unususal experience.

Almost the entire novel takes place at a private, Christian school called Trinity High School. The main character, Jerry Renault, is a freshman at Trinity. Jerry would have to be labeled the most vulnerable character because of his mother's recent death and his father's disillusionment due to the mother's death.

Trinity holds within it a group of seniors known as the Vigils, an underground group of the most feared seniors in the school. The Vigils have the reputation of getting what they want by their intimidation of the younger pupils at Trinity. The two members of the Vigils that stand out the most are Archie, who is known for his brilliant and cunning thinking while under pressure, and Carter, the leader of the Vigils. Both characters are total protagonists of each other. Arhcie self-proclaims himself the leader of the Vigils, hates athletics, and will do anything to drive others through misery for his own graditude. Carter is more laid back, shows a small typw of remorse (remorse that dosen't even exist in Archie), and is known for being a great lineman on Trinity's varsity football team.

Trinity begins to have its yearly chocolate sale. Archie says he will help Leon, the assistant dean, with the sale. Leon desprately wants a successful sale, and will got to any legnths to make sure it is a success. On the first day of the sale, Jerry exercises his right not to sell any chocolate. After hearing about this, Archie sees the potential name he could make for himself by feeding into Jerry. After the entire school gains a newly found respect and admiration for Jerry, Archie gets Jerry to continue to hold out on the chocolate sale for ten days. Leon becomes infuriated when hearing of this. He confronts Archie and reminds him of his previous commitment to Leon. Archie then begins to set the trend that selling chocolate is popular by using his resources within the Vigils.

Cormier had many themes throughout this novel. One is the lengths people will go through to be popular (everyone except Jerry displayed this). Another is how intimidation tatkes a serious toll on people, mentally and physically. The main one is how corrupt people can be. Even with a setting like a Christian school, underground organizations and uncaring teachers plagued it. This shows how much things are misconceieved. Christian schools are meant to instill Christian ethics into students' lives. This entire conception is conflicted by the characters in this novel.

Dormier also portrayed the life of teenagers throughout this novel. By describing actions, thoughts, and notions often linked with teens; Cormier showed how confusing teenagers really can be. Torn between many things, teenagers are very unpredictable and things they do are sometimes not generally accepted.

"The Chocolate War" would have to consulate as a great novel. Not many authors write about teenage life. Those who do don't portray it for its beauty and horror as Robert Cormier did in this novel.

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Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: The Chocolate War is a very interesting book that shows the effects of peer pressure on highschool kids, and at the same time, tells about a boy that fights back agaist other kids that THINK they are more powerful. The book is set in a private Catholic school for boys in the 1970's. The school has an annual tradition of selling chololates in which the main character, Jerry Renault, refuses to participate in. The Vigils are the main cause of his protest against the chocolate sale. "The Vigils" is a group of boys that is understood to rule the school. They test younger students to see if they have the potential to be a Vigil by giving them assignments. Jerry's assignment was to refuse to participate in the chocolate sale for ten days. Everyone, especially Brother Leon, gets irritated with him. Since the chocoalte sale is traditional, and EVERYONE always participates, the other students see this as weird. After the ten days are up, Jerry still refuses to sell the chocolates. He does this as a protest against the Vigils because they tell him to start sellng them. The author used the chocolate sale to symbolize society. Everyone does the same thing everyone else does. It's just "normal." Jerry Renault stepped outside of what was "normal," and therefore he was looked upon as being and outsider. In the end, Jerry sticks with his decision to not sell the chocolates and proves that not everyone does what everyone else does.

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Summary: Violent But You learn a lot about life
Review: The Chocolate War was cruel, violent, but that is how life is today. Being a teenager, I don't want to read about books with fairy-tale endings, to me it is really boring. So this book was an awakening from those other what seemed 10 million books. You learn about a child's life and the pressures that comes with it. Even though I don't really know why this novel was approved to be read, I'm glad that it was. The world is a place that when it's disturbed, you wish that you never said or did what you did. Jerry did this and stood up for himself, and what he believed, even if it was just selling choclates.

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Summary: Great
Review: I liekd this book a lot, and this is coming from someone that only reads books when he has to. I just thought the ending was very weak, like R.C. was thinking of selling the sequel more than anything else.

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Summary: My opinion on The Chocolate War
Review: The Chocolate War was a very interesting book in most parts. The book describes things that some people might find offensive because of the way they describe the boys' feelings about the chocolate sale and other subjects. This book lets reader think about what Jerry's life was like and what he went through, e.g.: his mother died, his father wasn't close to him, he went to a strict private school. All of these things, we are not used to and just don't think about until shown to us. This book is a good book to read if you are mature enough, because if you were young and immature this book would only amuse you in certain parts. But if you were older and more mature you would understand the book more personally and relate it to your own life.

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Summary: The Chocolate War Review
Review: The Chocolate War was not a realistic book at all. First, how could there be a group as powerful as The Vigils in high school? Second, it is not very realistic that a school would order 15,000 boxes of chocolates and try to make the students sell every last box. Last, it is not realistic that teachers would let a student physically abuse another student and get away with it. In conclusion, the Chocolate War was not a realistic book, which is why I gave it two stars.

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Summary: Suspense led to disappointment
Review: The Chocolate War, was descent. The plot made you want to keep reading, I couldn't stop turning pages, but, I was disappointed with the end. It just cut off leaving me to wonder WHAT ELSE! One thing I strongly felt was the The Chocolate War had a lot of unnecessary detail with discusting parts and just unneeded info as if Cormier didn't have anything else to write. This made it boring. Being that I'm a female, I did not enjoying reading about a bunch of teenage boys going through puberty and making immature actions. I think this book should be read by older audiences because of the appropiateness with language and sexuality, plus, the concept does not have much of a point and an older audience might intepret it better. This is what I think of The Chocolate War.