The Chocolate War :: essays research papers

1. Robert Cormier wrote The Chocolate War. The copyright of the book is 1974. 2. In the exposition of The Chocolate War, Jerry Renault, the freshman quarterback, was receiving constant blows from opposing players. Jerry was trying to get the ball to his receiver, the Goober, but not having any luck. In The Chocolate War, the rising action was the majority of the story. At Trinity High School, the school that Jerry attends, there is a group of "elite" students called the Vigils. The Vigils give out "assignments" to random students at Trinity. Archie, the head, told the Goober that his assignment was to unscrew every screw in Room nineteen. The Goober spent several hours doing his assignment, and eventually finished with the assistance of a few Vigil members. As the story goes on, the reader learns that every year at Trinity, there is a chocolate sale run by the assistant head master, Brother Leon. The last major detail in the rising action was when Archie informed Jerry of his assignment, Jerry’s assignment was not to sell chocolates for the first ten days of the annual chocolate sale. The climax of the novel was on the eleventh day of the chocolate sale when Jerry was supposed to start selling the chocolates but he didn’t. As a result of Jerry not selling any chocolates, the other students’ sales began to plummet during the falling action of the story. Brother Leon began to feel nervous and had to go to Archie and the Vigils for help. Incredibly, the Vigils turned the whole school against Jerry and made selling chocolates the "cool" thing. Students began to look down upon Jerry for not conforming to the chocolate sale tradition. Someone even vandalized Jerry’s locker and cut up his gym sneakers. A group of boys, including Emile Janza, one of the biggest bullies at Trinity, jumped Jerry after football practice and abused Jerry’s body with their fists and football cleats. The Chocolate War didn’t have a happy ending, but there was a resolution in the story. Archie set up a boxing match, of all things, between Jerry Renault and Emile Janza. Emile ended up beating Jerry to a bloody pulp in a matter of minutes, while Jerry landed only three punches the entire match. As a result Jerry finally learned that he couldn’t beat the system, and that he’d be better off doing what his authorities instructed him to do.