Customer Reviews

The Chocolate War

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(94)
3 star:		(48)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

Unique Chocolate
The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier, New York

The Chocolate War, a fiction book for young adults really gives an idea of what a story is like with sadness, danger, and violence all mixed together. This probably sounds like a bad subway combo but Robert Cormier makes them into a delicious banana split. Every teen should get a chance to read this wonderful novel because it will let them know that they are not alone.
Jerry Renault the main character goes to Trinity High School and has a difficult time attending school everyday. His mother died in the spring and all he wanted to do was make the football team. Life gets worse when the traditional chocolate sale comes up because Jerry gets assigned to say no for ten days by the school's backbone group "The Vigils." He keeps saying no and goes from being a normal kid to the one who everyone is after. After completing the assignment Jerry keeps saying no.
His best friend Goober is the only one Jerry can trust now. He's always there watching out for him although Jerry doesn't know it sometimes. Jerry gets beat up by the school's biggest bully named Janza. Archie was the leader of "The Vigils" who assigned Jerry to say no and for Janza to beat him up. Archie is very clever and is liked very much by brother Leon who dislikes Jerry for not selling the chocolates. They get in on a little thing together and Obie Archie's assistant realizes just how lucky he is to be on Archie's side. Jerry doesn't know why but he's just sick of the tradition and sick of having people assuming what he's going to do next.
Brother Leon wants Jerry to sell the chocolates; in fact he wants the whole school to sell all the chocolates because he wants to win. He gets very angry when he keeps hearing Jerry say no every morning during roll call. He will do anything to make sure Jerry regrets what he is doing to the school. With Brother Leon furious at him the rest of the school takes follow and end up being against Jerry which comes toward a terrible ending.
When Jerry gets caught into a ganged fight he realizes his life will no longer be the same. This is when everything turns to the worst and he can do nothing but roll with the flow. Even though it isn't easy Jerry is going to stick through it until the end.
Goals take persistence and no matter what the risk of danger Jerry is thrown into he is always trying to find a better way around it. He didn't know the only choice he would make would end up ruining the rest of his life. He is alone; who knows if he will survive.
Through the hard times Jerry keeps his head up as best he can with a lost identity. This is why the book could water the eyes and fill the hearts of teens around the world. Every teen knows what it feels like to lose, to grow to, and to press forward.

This is a horrifying story about a boy's school where there is literally a chocolate war.

A secret society of boys, which the administration has always turned their back on, takes over a school chocolate sale. The boys are all asked to sell fifty boxes at two dollars apiece instead of the normal twenty-five at a dollar. And the leader of the secret society is one of the students who is pushing the sale. And he tells one student to refuse to sell the chocolate for ten days, but on the eleventh he is to take them. And he doesn't.

This book is interesting, and has a lot of twists and turns. I can see why a lot of schools use this book to teach with. There are a lot of moral lessons and many things that can be learned. I enjoyed reading this, and would recommend it to anyone who has ever had bully problems.

Reviewed by: Taylor Rector

...but not as good as the movie.

I feel bad saying that, since the movie CAME from the book; it's just that the movie has more twists and more depth of character development -- particularly at the end.

Brother Leon, for example, comes across as much more wicked in the film, and the supporting cast is more sharply drawn.

I also felt the book suffered from the use of omniscient narrator technique. It seemed to reduce the suspense and focus.

Also, such scenes as the evil gang of little kids are much more effective visually than they are in print.

One of the reasons, I suppose, that I found the movie so creepy and disturbing was because there was this desolated, lonely atmosphere to everything, implying, in a way, that the schoolboys were actors of mythic stature at the beginning of an empty world. Nothing but the Brothers and them. I think this is due, however, to the movie's being brought off on a shoestring budget; I'm not sure the director intended it this way. Whatever the case may be, this thing -- this central excellence of the film, in my view -- is totally missing from the book.

I think the author was going for a kind of William Golding-type idea, but I don't think he succeeds anywhere near as that other author. He depicts evil, sure enough, but it just doesn't seem to have enough grip or intensity to be compelling.

However, on balance, a worthwhile read. Who can't identify with the degrading chocolate sales that every American school -- both public and private -- "invite" their students to participate in?

More development of the reader's sympathy for Jerry, the central character, would certainly have helped.

This is a good book with a powerful message. It starts with a high school freshman Jerry Renault being picked on by a secret school society called the Vigils. Brother Leon, a teacher at the school assists them in the harassment when Jerry refuses to participate in an annual school chocolate sale.As stupid as it may seem, the Vigils see him as a threat to them and the school tradition. I'll just tell you that they do some nasty things to him and those who admire him for his defiance (I don't want to ruin the book for those of you who haven't read it). All in all, it shows you that standing up for what you believe in and doing what you want to do is not always the best choice. Jerry didn't go along with the rest of the crowd and suffered the negative consequences for his choices. It's a good, suspensful, and exciting read, and for those of you who haven't read it, you should.

I expected to read a children's classic, but apparently, my definition of a classic is different than some people's. "The Chocolate War" is a book that wallows in hopelessness and despair.

Adolescence is difficult enough without filling children's heads with the bleak, crude ideas in this book. None of the characters are likeable, parents are characterized as empty shells sleepwalking through life, teachers are either cruel and domineering or weak-minded and feeble. Finally, the students are depicted as sheep who act only as they are directed.

The writing is poor with excessive use of similes. It seems every other sentence contains "like", "as if" or "a kind of". Examples of this are: "the smile remained on his face like a label on a bottle" or "the dial tone was like a fart in his ear". Huh? People "laugh as if it was some kind of joke". Awful.

I don't understand why this is required reading in many schools. This book is supposed to depict "realism", but I think it succeeds only in revealing Robert Cormier as a misanthrope.

This book was stupid, confusing, and a waste of time. I really didn't get the point. If your in to books about guy's in a all boys school touching each others butt in the halls as a sighn of frindship. Boy's in gangs trying to pull pranks on teacher. Asking the same question over and over again weather or not the main charecter is gay or lonley. if you don't want to waste your time DON'T READ THIS BOOK!

This is a back and forth teenage life story. How a new freshman comes and expects to be different. But as the story prolongs he has to beg a differ. Even though the story might sound interesting you might want to first read more reviews. I will not give the story away but this is not a book you would want to read. The book starts off slow. It also does not stick to one plot. There are various points in the book. There are graphic teenage actions in the book.

I give this 3 stars because it was boring . I say this
because the chapters jump from one thing to another. But I won't like to read a book like this anymore because it was confusing.

Point blank, I don't like this book. I see little value in it, and much like the other Cormier book I read (I am the Cheese) it is intended for a teen audience, attempting to show it's audience that life is a miserable existence, where their place on this earth is dubious at best and any act of individuality will be crushed in the gears of the uncaring populace. I cannot subscribe to this message, because it's an absurd inaccuracy.

This will certainly put an end to my reading of Cormier. After my experience with the first book, I wonder why I would have bought this. I have no good answer to that question other than to say that I wanted to see what all the praise was about. It brings to mind the adage that if you burn me once, shame on you; if you burn me twice, shame on me. Well, shame on me for reading this book. I get what I deserve. Do yourself a favor and don't repeat my mistake.

I imagine the story is meant to show its readers they are not alone. That, and to sell books. That's fine, either way you look at it. However, in the end the bad guys essentially, for lack of a better word, win. There are no good guys, nor are there bad guys. So the assessment is subjective, in a sense. We're dealing with kids, and these kids represent a thoroughly absurd un-reality in the story. Through it all I found myself interested in the story, I'll admit this much. But in the end, I still come back to the question of, "What's the point?" It's so thoroughly pointless I found myself entirely disgusted with the book, as well as the author.

Just as I didn't see the point of 'I am the Cheese', I don't see one here. I can't recommend this book by any stretch of the imagination. Books that would be better for the intended audience include Catch-22 (Heller), Brave New World (Huxley), or Catcher in the Rye (Salinger).

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. Any kid who has ever attended activities with others their own age will instantly recognize the fear and intimidation their peers can inspire. The book's excellent understanding of how large groups of people will stay silent when one of them is being persecuted, because none of them want to be singled out, is drilled home in the story's final climactic boxing match. Better still, Cormier truly explores the nature of violence in every human being. Archie understands it, and sets up a situation where the kids of the school participate in something akin to the gladiator fights of ancient Rome. The final atrocity Archie manages to perpetuate against Jerry is that he makes the kid himself want to taste blood. To give in to the violence around him. It's heartbreaking and amazingly well written.

The fact that there's a sequel to "The Chocolate War" depresses me on some level. This is one book I really felt stood on its own. We can imagine the repercussions that occur later well enough without having to rely on a continuation of some sort. Either the sequel will simply establish the first book's moral (disturbing the status quo may well kill you) or it will trump everything the first book ever proposed (now the good guys win and the bad guys suffer). In any case, "The Chocolate War" is well worth reading. Painful reading, yes. Sometimes difficult and sometimes unsentimental. I myself am going to go curl up with "Charlotte's Web" to get the taste of the book out of my mouth. But every kid in the world should read it. It is perhaps the best young adult novel ever written.