Ever since it was published in 1974, Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War has been protested for years. Many teachers and parents believe that its portrayal of life and violence make the book too graphic for students. The continuous fight for control and power yield multiple conflicts between characters. The characters attitude between one another depict the overall moral of this book. I believe the novel should not be banned because readers should have the choice of reading the book or not. This book should be read so that a variety of audiences may witness the fear and manipulation portrayed through language, violence, and the realism of characters.
Cormier uses vivid and foul language to show the fear and manipulation throughout this novel. …show more content…
Cormier does not sugarcoat the characters’ actions and feelings, and this realistic portrayal allows readers to learn from these characters. The first realistic character, Jerry, is a person who has a roller coaster of emotions, and this roller coaster is provoked by fear and manipulation. Jerry goes from a stage of breaking his routine to not caring. An example of Jerry wanting to break the routine is after him and his dad have the “fine” talk. “Jerry looked at himself in the mirror, saw himself as the guy at the Common must have seen him the other day: Square Boy” (Cormier 63). In chapter thirty, which is one of the corrupt chapters for Jerry, Harold Darcy asks why he isn’t selling chocolates, and Jerry’s response is, “It’s a free country”(Cormier 195). Another character, Archie, is the most realistic as he mentally tortures people. Archie is an interesting character in ways of his actions towards other characters in the book, characters that thought they were Archie’s friend. Archie Costello is the assigner of the Vigils, an underground organization at Trinity. One Vigil assignment called for the students of Brother Jacques class to explode in frantic motion every time the word ‘environment’ was said. Brother Jacques overused the word after he saw what was happening, and after the class was over, Cormier describes “Archie leaning against the wall, that smirk of triumph on his face”(Cormier 129). This means Archie has enjoyed watching the whole act, and nobody noticed Archie except Obie, who is the Vigils treasurer. Archie is a backstabbing, two faced psychopath, in my opinion, who we all need to learn
Cormier uses vivid and foul language to show the fear and manipulation throughout this novel. …show more content…
Cormier does not sugarcoat the characters’ actions and feelings, and this realistic portrayal allows readers to learn from these characters. The first realistic character, Jerry, is a person who has a roller coaster of emotions, and this roller coaster is provoked by fear and manipulation. Jerry goes from a stage of breaking his routine to not caring. An example of Jerry wanting to break the routine is after him and his dad have the “fine” talk. “Jerry looked at himself in the mirror, saw himself as the guy at the Common must have seen him the other day: Square Boy” (Cormier 63). In chapter thirty, which is one of the corrupt chapters for Jerry, Harold Darcy asks why he isn’t selling chocolates, and Jerry’s response is, “It’s a free country”(Cormier 195). Another character, Archie, is the most realistic as he mentally tortures people. Archie is an interesting character in ways of his actions towards other characters in the book, characters that thought they were Archie’s friend. Archie Costello is the assigner of the Vigils, an underground organization at Trinity. One Vigil assignment called for the students of Brother Jacques class to explode in frantic motion every time the word ‘environment’ was said. Brother Jacques overused the word after he saw what was happening, and after the class was over, Cormier describes “Archie leaning against the wall, that smirk of triumph on his face”(Cormier 129). This means Archie has enjoyed watching the whole act, and nobody noticed Archie except Obie, who is the Vigils treasurer. Archie is a backstabbing, two faced psychopath, in my opinion, who we all need to learn