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The Chocolate War
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The Chocolate War Mass market paperbound - 1986

by Robert Cormier


Summary

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From the publisher

Stunned by his mother's recent death and appalled by the way his father sleepwalks through life, Jerry Renault, a New England high school student, ponders the poster in his locker-"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
Part of his universe is Archie Costello, leader of a secret school societ-the Virgils-and master of intimidation. Archie himself is intimidated by a cool, ambitious teacher into having the Virgils spearhead the annual fund-raising event-a chocolate sale. When Jerry refuses to be bullied into selling chocolates, he becomes a hero, but his defiance is a threat to Archie, the Virgils, and the school. In the inevitable showdown, Archie's skill at intimidation turns Jerry from hero to outcast, to victim, leaving him alone and terribly vulnerable.

Details

  • Title The Chocolate War
  • Author Robert Cormier
  • Binding Mass Market Paperbound
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Pages 272
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Laurel Leaf Library, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date 1986-08-01
  • ISBN 9780440944591 / 0440944597
  • Weight 0.29 lbs (0.13 kg)
  • Dimensions 6.92 x 4.18 x 0.73 in (17.58 x 10.62 x 1.85 cm)
  • Ages 12 to 17 years
  • Grade levels 7 - 12
  • Reading level 820
  • Library of Congress subjects Schools, High schools
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Excerpt

THEY MURDERED HIM.

As he turned to take the ball, a dam burst against the side of his head and a hand grenade shattered his stomach. Engulfed by nausea, he pitched toward the grass. His mouth encountered gravel, and he spat frantically, afraid that some of his teeth had been knocked out. Rising to his feet, he saw the field through drifting gauze but held on until everything settled into place, like a lens focusing, making the world sharp again, with edges.

The second play called for a pass. Fading back, he picked up a decent block and cocked his arm, searching for a receiver - maybe the tall kid they called The Goober. Suddenly, he was caught from behind and whirled violently, a toy boat caught in a whirlpool. Landing on his knees, hugging the ball, he urged himself to ignore the pain that gripped his groin, knowing that it was important to betray no sign of distress, remembering The Goober's advice, "Coach is testing you, testing, and he's looking for guts."

I've got guts. Jerry murmured, getting up by degrees, careful not to displace any of his bones or sinews. A telephone rang in his ears. Hello, hello, I'm still here. When he moved his lips, he tasted the acid of dirt and grass and gravel. He was aware of the other players around him, helmeted and grotesque, creatures from an unknown world. He had never felt so lonely in his life, abandoned, defenseless.

On the third play, he was hit simultaneously by three of them: one, his knees; another, his stomach; a third, his head - the helmet no protection at all. His body seemed to telescope into itself but all the parts didn't fit, and he was stunned by the knowledge that pain isn't just one thing - it is cunning and various, sharp here and sickening there, burning here and clawing there. He clutched himself as he hit the ground. The ball squirted away. His breath went away, like the ball - a terrible stillness pervaded him - and then, at the onset of panic, his breath came back again. His lips sprayed wetness and he was grateful for the sweet cool air that filled his lungs. But when he tried to get up, his body mutinied against movement. He decided the hell with it. He'd go to sleep right here, right out on the fifty yard line, the hell with trying out for the team, screw everything, he was going to sleep, he didn't care anymore--

"Renault!"

Ridiculous, someone calling his name.

"Renault!"

The coach's voice scraped like sandpaper against his ears. He opened his eyes flutteringly. "I'm all right," he said to nobody in particular, or to his father maybe. Or the coach. He was unwilling to abandon this lovely lassitude but he had to, of course. He was sorry to leave the earth, and he was vaguely curious about how he was going to get up, with both legs smashed and his skull battered in. He was astonished to find himself on his feet, intact, bobbing like one of those toy novelties dangling from car windows, but erect.

"For Christ's sake," the coach bellowed, his voice juicy with contempt. A spurt of saliva hit Jerry's cheek.

Hey, coach, you spit on me, Jerry protested. Stop the spitting, coach. What he said aloud was, "I'm all right, coach," because he was a coward about stuff like that, thinking one thing and saying another, planning one thing and doing another - he had been Peter a thousand times and a thousand cocks had crowed in his lifetime.

"How tall are you, Renault?"

"Five nine," he gasped, still fighting for breath.

"Weight?"

"One forty-five," he said, looking the coach straight in the eye.

"Soaking wet, I'll bet," the coach said sourly. "What the hell you want to play football for? You need more meat on those bones. What the hell you trying to play quarterback for? You'd make a better end. Maybe."

The coach looked like an old gangster: broken nose, a scar on his check like a stitched shoestring. He needed a shave, his stubble like slivers of ice. He growled and swore and was merciless. But a helluva coach, they said. The coach stared at him now, the dark eyes probing, pondering. Jerry hung in there, trying not to sway, trying not to faint.

"All right," the coach said in disgust. "Show up tomorrow. Three o'clock sharp or you're through before you start."

Inhaling the sweet sharp apple air through his nostrils - he was afraid to open his mouth wide, wary of any movement that was not absolutely essential - he walked tentatively toward the sidelines, listening to the coach barking at the other guys. Suddenly, he loved that voice, "Show up tomorrow."

He trudged away from the field, blinking against the afternoon sun, toward the locker room at the gym. His knees were liquid and his body light as air, suddenly.

Know what? He asked himself, a game he played sometimes.

What?

I'm going to make the team.

Dreamer, dreamer.

Not a dream: it's the truth.

As Jerry took another deep breath, a pain appeared, distant, small - a radar signal of distress. Bleep, I'm here. Pain. His feet scuffled through crazy cornflake leaves. A strange happiness invaded him. He knew he'd been massacred by the oncoming players, capsized and dumped humiliatingly on the ground. But he'd survived - he'd gotten to his feet. "You'd make a better end." Was the coach thinking he might try him at end? Any position, as long as he made the team. The bleep grew larger, localized now, between his ribs on the right side. He thought of his mother and how drugged she was at the end, not recognizing anyone, neither Jerry nor his father. The exhilaration of the moment vanished and he sought it in vain, like seeking ecstasy's memory an instant after jacking off and encountering only shame and guilt.

Nausea began to spread through his stomach, warm and oozy and evil.

"Hey," he called weakly. To nobody. Nobody there to listen.

He managed to make it back to the school. By the time he had sprawled himself on the floor of the lavatory, his head hanging over the lip of the toilet bowl and the smell of disinfectant stinging his eyeballs, the nausea had passed and the bleep of pain had faded. Sweat moved like small moist bugs on his forehead.

And then, without warning, he vomited.

Media reviews

"The Chocolate War is masterfully structured and rich in theme; the action is well crafted, well timed, suspenseful; complex ideas develop and unfold with clarity."-The New York Times Book Review

"The characterizations of all the boys are superb...  This novel [is] unique in its uncompromising portrait of human cruelty and conformity."-School Library Journal, starred review

"The novel is cleverly written with a good sense of the realistic and a good ear for dialouge, qualities which will attract any reader."-Bestsellers

"Robert Cormier has written a brilliant novel."-Children's Book Revie Service

About the author

ROBERT CORMIER
1925-2000 Robert Cormier (pronounced kor-MEER) lived all his life in Leominster, Massachusetts, a small town in the north-central part of the state, where he grew up as part of a close, warm community of French Canadian immigrants. His wife, Connie, also from Leominster, still lives in the house where they raised their three daughters and one son-all adults now. They never saw a reason to leave. "There are lots of untold stories right here on Main Street," Cormier once said.
A newspaper reporter and columnist for 30 years (working for the "Worcester Telegram "and "Gazette "and the "Fitchburg Sentinel"), Cormier was often inspired by news stories. What makes his works unique is his ability to make evil behavior understandable, though, of course, still evil. "I'm very much interested in intimidation," he told an interviewer from "School Library Journal." "And the way people manipulate other people. And the obvious abuse of authority." All of these themes are evident in his young adult classic and best-known book, "The Chocolate War." A 15-year-old fan of his said, "You always write from inside the person." Cormier traveled the world, from Australia (where he felt particularly thrilled by putting his hand in the Indian Ocean) and New Zealand to most of the countries in Europe, speaking at schools, colleges, and universities and to teacher and librarian associations. He visited nearly every state in the nation. While Cormier loved to travel, he said many times that he also loved returning to his home in Leominster.
Cormier was a practicing Catholic and attended parochial school, where in seventh grade, one of his teachers discovered his ability to write. But he said he had always wanted to be a writer: "I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper." His first poems were published in the "Leominster Daily Enterprise, " and his first professional publication occurred while he was a freshman at Fitchburg State College. His professor, Florence Conlon, sent his short story, without his knowledge, to "The Sign, " a national Catholic magazine. The story, titled "The Little Things That Count," sold for $75. Cormier's first work as a writer was at radio station WTAG in Worcester, MA, where he wrote scripts and commercials from 1946 to 1948. In 1948, he began his award-winning career as a newspaperman with the "Worcester Telegram, "first in its Leominster office and later in its Fitchburg office. He wrote a weekly human-interest column, "A Story from the Country," for that newspaper.
In 1955, Cormier joined the staff of the "Fitchburg Sentinel, " which later became the "Fitchburg-Leominster Sentinel and Enterprise, " as the city hall and political reporter. He later served as wire and associate editor and wrote a popular twice-weekly column under the pseudonym John Fitch IV. The column received the national K.R. Thomason Award in 1974 as the best human-interest column written that year. That same year, he was honored by the New England Associated Press Association for having written the best news story under pressure of deadline. He left newspaper work in 1978 to devote all his time to writing. Robert Cormier's first novel, "Now and at the Hour, "was published in 1960. Inspired by his father's death, the novel drew critical acclaim and was featured by "Time "magazine for five weeks on its "Recommended Reading" list. It was followed in 1963 by "A Little Raw on Monday Mornings "and in 1965 by "Take Me Where the Good Times Are, "also critically acclaimed. The author was hailed by the "Newark Advocate" as being "in the first rank of American Catholic novelists."
In 1974, Cormier published "The Chocolate War, "the novel that is still a bestseller a quarter century after its publication. Instantly acclaimed, it was also the object of censorship attempts because of its uncompromising realism. In a front-page review in a special children's issue of "The New York Times Book Review, " it was described as "masterfully structured and rich in theme," and it went on to win countless awards and honors, was taught in schools and colleges throughout the world, and was translated into more than a dozen languages. "I Am the Cheese "followed in 1977 and "After the First Death" in 1979. These three books established Cormier as a master of the young adult novel. In 1991, the Young Adult Services Division of the American Library Association presented him with the Margaret A. Edwards Award, citing the trio of books as "brilliantly crafted and troubling novels that have achieved the status of classics in young adult literature."
In 1982, Cormier was honored by the National Council of Teachers of English and its Adolescent Literature Assembly (ALAN) for his "significant contribution to the field of adolescent literature" and for his "innovative creativity." "8 Plus 1, " an anthology of short stories that have appeared in such publications as the "Saturday Evening Post, The Sign, "and "Redbook, " was published in 1980. In later years, many of the stories in the collection, notably "The Moustache," "President Cleveland, Where Are You?" and "Mine on Thursdays," appeared in anthologies and school textbooks. The collection also received the World of Reading Readers' Choice Award, sponsored by Silver Burdett & Ginn, especially notable because young readers voted for Cormier to receive the prize.
"I Have Words to Spend, " a collection of his newspaper and magazine columns, was published in 1991, assembled and edited by his wife, Connie. Robert Cormier's other novels include "The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, " 1983; "Beyond the Chocolate War, "1985; "Fade, " 1988; "Other Bells for Us to Ring, " 1990; "We All Fall Down, " 1991; "Tunes for Bears to Dance To, " 1992; "In the Middle of the Night, " 1995; "Tenderness, "1997; "Heroes, " 1998; and "Frenchtown Summer, " 1999. This novel won the "Los Angeles Times "Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction in April 2000. All his novels have won critical praise and honors.
"In the Middle of the Night" and "Tenderness" were short-listed for the Carnegie Medal in England, and "Heroes" received a "Highly Commended" citation for that same award, unique honors because the Carnegie is traditionally awarded to a British book. Cormier's novels have frequently come under attack by censorship groups because they are uncompromising in their depictions of the problems young people face each day in a turbulent world. Teachers and librarians have been quick to point out that his novels are eminently teachable, valuable, and moral. His novels are taught in hundreds of schools and in adolescent literature courses in colleges and universities.
Though many of his books are described as written for young adults, in fact people of all ages read and enjoy Cormier's work. His themes of the ordinariness of evil and what happens when good people stand by and do nothing are treated seriously, and he never provides the easy comfort of a happy ending. Cormier's gripping stories explore some of the darker corners of the human psyche, but always with a moral focus and a probing intelligence that compel readers to examine their own feelings and ethical beliefs. In an interview last year, Cormier was asked if he had accomplished what he set out to do at the beginning of his writing career. He answered with characteristic humility: "Oh, yes. My dream was to be known as a writer and to be able to produce at least one book that would be read by people. That dream came true with the publication of my first novel-and all the rest has been a sweet bonus. All I've ever wanted to do, really, was to write." That writing has left the world a legacy of wonderful books, a body of work that will endure.
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