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 23 of “The Choco­late War,” Jer­ry and Goober are mak­ing their way to the bus stop on a Wednes­day, a day with­out foot­ball prac­tice. Jer­ry is excit­ed because he hopes to see a girl named Ellen Bar­rett, who he finds beau­ti­ful and has smiled at him pre­vi­ous­ly. How­ev­er, Goober, unex­pect­ed­ly seri­ous, announces that he is quit­ting the foot­ball team, which con­fus­es Jer­ry, as he believed Goober enjoyed the sport.

    As they run to the bus stop, Goober strug­gles to explain his deci­sion, hes­i­tant to dis­cuss the under­ly­ing con­nec­tion to recent events. Their con­ver­sa­tion shifts to Broth­er Eugene, who has sup­pos­ed­ly gone on sick leave after the destruc­tion of Room Nine­teen, which deeply impact­ed both the boys but more so Goober, who reflects on the cru­el­ty he wit­nessed and endured at school.

    Jer­ry, try­ing to under­stand and keep pace with their con­ver­sa­tion, ques­tions Goober about the con­nec­tion between Eugene’s depar­ture and his quit­ting foot­ball. Goober strug­gles to artic­u­late his feel­ings, sens­ing some­thing is fun­da­men­tal­ly wrong at their school. He men­tions “evil” and “the Vig­ils,” ref­er­enc­ing a group that has con­tributed to the tox­ic atmos­phere. Despite Jer­ry’s attempts to down­play the seri­ous­ness of their sit­u­a­tion, Goober insists that the expe­ri­ences they have gone through, includ­ing the emo­tion­al toll of these school inci­dents, are not mere­ly games.

    They share a silent moment, both grap­pling with the weight of their feel­ings. Goober ulti­mate­ly asks Jer­ry to sell the choco­lates, a sym­bol of the pres­sures they face at Trin­i­ty, while Jer­ry sug­gests Goober recon­sid­er play­ing foot­ball. Goober adamant­ly refus­es any involve­ment with the school activ­i­ties, indi­cat­ing a desire to dis­tance him­self from the tox­i­c­i­ty. Their con­ver­sa­tion encap­su­lates a broad­er strug­gle against the injus­tices they face, cul­mi­nat­ing in a moment of shared sad­ness as they leave for the bus stop, where they arrive only to find that Ellen is not there—further empha­siz­ing their sense of loss and iso­la­tion.

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