Chocolate War Robert Cormier Summariser (Final Lit Circles)

Lit Circles- Summarizer

The Chocolate War is a story told in very short scenes and chapters and is pretty easy to read. At the start of the book, Jerry, the main character is in football practice at the all-boys Catholic Trinity High School in the fictional town of Monument, Massachusetts. In the book there is a boy named Archie, the "Assignor". He is the brains of a secret organization called The Vigils. They are a group that write down assignments.

It is important to note that the assignments are cruel pranks and practical jokes that students are chosen to do. They have no choice but to obey The Vigils or face the consequences.

A man called Brother Leon is the acting headmaster of Trinity, and he and Archie had formed, somewhat of an alliance. They wanted to organize an annual chocolate sale. Leon overextended school funds for this chocolate sale to happen. He turns greedy and wants all students to sell chocolates.

Jerry's assignment is to not participate in the chocolate sale for ten days, and so he does. But after the 10 days, he decided still not to sell the chocolates. He was somewhat of a rebel. He decided to refuse to see the chocolates because of the cruelty around him, in Trinity. This leads to heavy persecution of Jerry by The Vigils who beat him up severely...

Leon is somewhat threatened by Jerry and he doesn’t want the other students to act like that. He felt as if the chocolate sale would “die” because of Jerry. Therefore, Leon and Archie organize a cruel boxing match in front of the whole school starring Jerry and Emile Janza, a school bully.

Janza and Jerry fight, but Janza stopped playing by the rules and was just too good for Jerry. Jerry is beaten so severely that he loses consciousness. Before he leaves he tells his best friend to go along with whatever Trinity and The Vigils want him to do in the future, or he may end up like him. What the book implies with the ending is that Jerry might of had died after the fight but that is not certain.

The main theme of this novel is defiance of authority. It shows how fear and manipulation can be very powerful and costly. So sometimes it's even better to follow bad orders of bad people rather than sacrificing your own life. Moreover there are no female characters, and the story is mainly about boys. It is very realistic and emotional.