| Monday, November 16, 2009 |
| The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier pg 1-52 |
Summary
The first chapter starts out durring a football practice where a boy is getting tackeld realy bad. The boy knocks out for a moment and when he wakes up we find out that his name is Jerry. Jerry is trying out for the team, but his abillities are questiones at 5"9, 145 pounds. In disgust, the coach tells him to come back the next day three o'clock sharp. Jerry is determined to make the football team and as he gets back to the school, nausea takes over him as he vomits in the bathroom.
Obie and Archie are introduced in the story, and Obie both hates and admires Archie. Archie is a character who thinks very highly of himself almost like a king. Archie is a member of a group in the shool called the Vigils, and Obie was officially the secretary. In assigning the Vigil assignments, Archie assigns Jerry. Obie goes againsts it saying that he's only trying to make the team and his mother has just dies of Cancer. Archie stays with his decision saying that Jerry is a tough stubborn kid who should of stayed down on the turf. Jerry was assigned to the chocolates.
Brother Leon disscuses with Archie that the school needs to sell 20,000 boxes of chocolate in order to make a big profit. Brother Leon tells Archie that he will be in charge of the school because the headmaster is ill and will be going into the hospital. Brother Leon wants Archie to help him with the chocolate sale, and Archie agrees to it. When Goubert was given his assignment, it is explained to him that he must go to Brother Eugene's room to unscrew everything that could be unsrewed. In the Vigils the black box is the nemesis of the leader. The box provided the control. Six marbels are placed in the box, five white, and one black. If the leader, which is Archie, pulls the black marble he has to do the assignment himself. In three years Archie has never pulled the black marbel. This time, he again pulled a white marbel defeting the black box. "I am Archie. I cannot lose" (Comier 38). Emilie Janza was a tackle on the football team who no one seemed to mess with. Emilie was known for harassing people, even teachers and was always looking for victims who didn't want any trouble. Archie was the only people Emile repected and maybe even feared.
Quote
"Ready," Archie said, keeping his face expressionless, inscrutable as usual, even though he felt a bread of perspiration trace a cold path from his armpit to his rib. The black box was his nemesis" (Comier 37).
Reaction
I like how even though Archie and the Vigils have the power in the story, Comier aslo gives them some sort of weekness. The black box is a good tool used in the story to show that even though the Vigils are legendary, they can still be controled. I noticed that Cormier describes new charachters in the story by interacting with other charachters. He dosen't come right out and give the readers detail by detail descriptions of the people in the story. For example, the part of the story where Archie and Obie are on the bleechers. The reader is able to find out that Obie is loyal to the Vigils, but does not always agree with Archie and consiters him a bastard. Scences like this in the story causes the readers to picture whats going on in the story in their minds in order to get a better understanding of the story. |
posted by mikey sb @ 2:27 PM  |
|
|
|
|
|
| About Me |
|
Name: mikey sb
Home: United States
About Me: ROAR Blogger
See my complete profile
|
| Previous Post |
|
| Archives |
|
| Book |
The Chocolate War |
| Links |
|
 |
|
Post a Comment