Cover of The Chocolate War
    Novel

    The Chocolate War

    by testsuphomeAdmin
    The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier follows Jerry Renault, a high school student who refuses to participate in his school's annual chocolate sale fundraiser. His act of defiance sparks a cruel campaign of bullying and manipulation, leading him to question authority, conformity, and the power of resistance.

    In Chap­ter Twen­ty-Nine of “The Choco­late War,” Bri­an Cochran is deeply engrossed in tal­ly­ing the sales fig­ures of the choco­late sales cam­paign. He feels exhil­a­rat­ed by the stag­ger­ing rise in sales, expe­ri­enc­ing a high akin to intox­i­ca­tion from the increas­ing num­bers. The sud­den surge in sales is inex­plic­a­ble but pal­pa­ble through­out the school, with choco­lates becom­ing a new trend. Rumors sug­gest that The Vig­ils, a secre­tive group, are ral­ly­ing sup­port for the sale, although Bri­an avoids direct involve­ment with them. He observes mem­bers ensur­ing that stu­dents who haven’t per­formed well in sales receive a warn­ing, indi­cat­ing a pos­si­ble coer­cive effort behind the unusu­al lev­els of par­tic­i­pa­tion.

    Bri­an jug­gles records and responds to a hec­tic atmos­phere as teams of stu­dents active­ly pro­mote choco­late sales in neigh­bor­hoods and even local fac­to­ries. As Bri­an updates the results on the board, the assem­bly hall becomes a hub of excite­ment; stu­dents cheer as they see the achieve­ments of their peers. How­ev­er, the fair­ness of cred­it dis­tri­b­u­tion trou­bles him. For instance, Carter, head of The Vig­ils, sub­mits a sig­nif­i­cant amount of mon­ey from what he claims to be sev­en­ty-five box­es sold, and Bri­an care­ful­ly counts it under Carter’s scru­ti­niz­ing gaze.

    Carter requests that Bri­an allo­cate cred­its for the sales to var­i­ous stu­dents, many of whom did not make those sales. Bri­an com­plies, acknowl­edg­ing the shadi­ness of the sit­u­a­tion but ratio­nal­iz­ing that it’s not his place to inter­fere. Bri­an notes that sev­er­al stu­dents have reached their sales quo­ta, and Carter com­mends his work, momen­tar­i­ly boost­ing Bri­an’s con­fi­dence, despite his sus­pi­cions about the integri­ty of the cam­paign.

    At the end of the day, the total sales fig­ure climbs to fif­teen thou­sand and ten box­es, with Broth­er Leon, the fac­ul­ty mem­ber over­see­ing the sale, appear­ing vis­i­bly thrilled by the suc­cess. He shares in Bri­an’s excite­ment, even address­ing him by his first name for the first time. When Bri­an posts the final fig­ures, he is met with applause, feel­ing like a star ath­lete, a mile­stone that marks a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in his school expe­ri­ence.

    0 Comments

    Heads up! Your comment will be invisible to other guests and subscribers (except for replies), including you after a grace period.
    Note