A Study Guide for Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Aug 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781535835770

Book preview

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The Chocolate War

Robert Cormier

1974

Introduction

The publication of The Chocolate War in 1974 is now seen as a ground-breaking event in the establishment of young adult literature as a separate genre. Robert Cormier's novel was originally conceived as an adult book, for all his previous fiction had been for adults. Nevertheless, it quickly became both an inspiration to other writers and publishers for teens and the standard by which much subsequent young adult literature has been judged. Shocking in its relentless and unsentimental representation of the power and control exerted by bullying adults and boys at a Catholic school, the novel was criticized by some early reviewers for its failure to include for its young readers a redeeming resolution. (Cormier had resisted pressure from a number of publishers to alter the ending.)

The plot for The Chocolate War was inspired by an event in Cormier's own life. When his son decided, without repercussion, not to sell chocolates in his school's annual sale, Cormier asked himself, What if? This question, he has declared, is the spark for all his writing. If the novel had been simply about harassment and intimidation among a group of boys, it would not have been in any way remarkable. What makes it disturbing is the collusion between the Catholic teaching staff and a group of boys known as the Vigils who exert a Mafia-like influence at the school and employ psychological tactics against other pupils and staff. One of The Chocolate War's principle themes is the futility of individual protests and resistance in the face of such power structures and, by implication, the importance of collective action.

Author Biography

Robert Cormier was born January 17,1925, in Leominster, Massachusetts, and has lived in the town for most of his life. After attending Fitchburg State College, he began a career in journalism, first with the radio station WTAG (1946-48). He then worked at the Worcester Telegraph & Gazette and, for a longer period, the Fitchburg Sentinel. He gave up full-time journalism in 1966 to concentrate on novel-writing, but continued to work as a columnist and associate editor for the Sentinel. He won a number of awards for his human interest column (published under the byline John Fitch IV), and a volume of autobiographical essays, edited by his wife—I Have Words To Spend: Reflections of A Small-Town Editor(1991)—helps to explain the relationship between the upbeat realism of his journalistic work and the cynicism of his imaginative fiction.

His first three books were adult novels. Although none achieved any notable success, the third, Take Me Where The Good Times Are, is significant because in it he established the fictional Monument City, a small New England town modeled on his native Leominster. Monument is the setting for much of Cormier's young adult fiction, including his fourth book, The Chocolate War. There had