Beyond the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a sequel to The Chocolate War. It's difficult to summarize both books without spoiling, so I suggest you take note of some spoiling.
The overall summary for both of these books is that in the setting, Trinity High School, a group of teens named 'Vigils' force other students to do tasks that vary from really easy to horrible. The leader of this group is Archie Costello, a guy that reins enough power as school bully. During a fundraiser to sell chocolate, Archie enforces a task to not sell any chocolate at all to a transfer high school student. However, for the first time in Trinity, someone refused to take the task. That man was the protagonist, Jerry Renault. As for the sequel, I recently started and I cannot explain all details fully. So, instead of focusing on thoughts of the book, I plan to describe mainly the original series, The Chocolate War.
The Chocolate War was definitely an interesting story. Despite the fact that it has a corny plot (something along the lines of "who'd want to read a book about fundraising chocolate?"), it had lots of action and description I literally felt like I was watching a movie. The story also pointed out supporting characters and their various perspectives, and though it made it a bit confusing, it was a book worth reading.
When I first thought of Jerry, I realized that he's a VERY quiet character. Normally, a protagonist would speak out more often than average, even though he just entered the school. His behavior and actions moreover speak out for himself. He is a perfect character with a sense of justice; he becomes responsible for all that's done to him and acts honest at usually interesting times to make a clear point. When he defied the Vigils, everyone around him started to get up on their senses. Did they have to do these assignments? Clearly not. Rebelling was a perfect option.
This leads up to various questions. But I began to wonder: is it better to stand up for yourself and possibly others, or demand safety instead? This is at least one of the reasons why the other students did the assignments than procrastinate or not do it.
What do you think?
Is Trinity HS in NY? I think it's a private school... I once took a entrance test for it but failed miserably O_O awwww...
ReplyDeleteI like hoe you write about the character themselves. That is one thing I seem to never be able to achieve. Usually I write about the plot whereas you write about the book's prespective and such. Good Job :)