FREE ESSAY ON THE CHOCOLATE WAR

THE CHOCOLATE WAR

BOOK REPORT
TITLE: The Chocolate War
AUTHOR: Robert Cormier
PUBLICATION DATE: 1974
PLACE SETTING: The story is set in New York.
TIME SETTING: The story takes place in the modern day.
POINT OF VIEW: The story is told in third person.
THEME:
The theme is fighting the establishment. Jerry is all by himself against the Vigils
and, it seems, the faculty of the school, who blindly let the chocolates become their
number one priority. All these forces are too much for Jerry, who is defeated in the
end.
MAIN CHARACTERS
Jerry- rebellious kid who gets in trouble for it
Archie- mastermind of Vigils, group that dominates the high school in the story.
Carter- president of Vigils
Goober- Jerry's friend
PLOT SUMMARY:
Jerry is a young, anonymous kid at a Catholic school. One day he gets an
assignment from the Vigils, a group of upperclassmen that has much influence in the
school. There is a big chocolate-selling fund-raiser in the school, and the Vigils tell
Jerry
to refuse to sell chocolates for 10 days, knowing he will face much scrutiny and
pressure
from other students. After the 10 days, however, he continues to refuse to sell. Archie,
the assigner of the Vigils, is under pressure to get all the chocolates sold, because he
agreed to get the Vigils behind it. Because of this, he puts pressure on Jerry to sell. 
Archie then decides to hold a raffle to sell Jerry's share of chocolates. The raffle
doubles
as a boxing match, one ticket entitling the holder to call one punch. Jerry ends up
getting
a severe beating. The episode severely undermines the Vigils' credibility, but does more
damage to Jerry.
EVALUATION:
This is an odd, rather unlikely story of high school social status. The Vigils, and
the power they hold, seem rather implausible, but it's still a rather good story.