Summary
The next morning the students came in and even Brother Eugene and as the students went to sit down everything started to fall apart. Even when Brother Eugene chair fell apart. A student says that all of this is because of the Vigils. Brother Leon comes and start to get rough with Archie pushing him against the walls. Besides that going back to the football tryouts once again Jerry is being manhandled on the field. Playing the play over and over again then finally on the 17th try Jerry gets off a pass to Goober who goes in for a touchdown. Jerry is soo happy, then when he goes to his locker there is an assignment from the Vigil. The chocolate sale begun and Jerry still refuses to sell them, and Goober is shocked because everyone agreed to sell them. John Sulkey is the master of selling things. He wants to sell more than everybody else. Then you have a boy name Tubs Casper and he is really trying to sell the chocolate so he can get his girlfriend a bracelet. Then you have a boy name Paul Consalvo. He tries to sell chocolates, but he is having a hard time trying to sell them. In a conversation between Archie and Emile Janza, Archie went into the boys bathroom and saw Emile do something real inapropiate. Archie pretended to take a picture and really didn't, so he was blackmailing him just for fun. Usually Brother Leon is nice and cool this time we see him at his worse. This straight "A" student named Caroni recieves and "F" for the first time on the test. Brother Leon will decide if he will change it or not. Finally after all of that trouble, Jerry decides to accept the chocolates. Later on Jerry starts to struggle of understanding why he really refused the chocolate. He can't sleep at all because the moment is replaying in his head. He keeps thinking about death and what happends to their bodies when they die. All Jerry wants is his life to be normal again. He wants there to be no more assignments, no Vigils, and no more refusing chocolates.
Quote
The quote that I'm going to use is "Was it because of what Brother Leon does to people, like Bailey, the way he tortures them, tries to make fools of them in front of everybody" (Cormier 91). I chose to pick this quote because I felt as in if there are people like that in the world many people can get hurt by what people are saying. The thing is you will never know because many people might not show it. For a teacher to do that, it is really disrespectful and wrong. A teacher is never supposed to bring a child down they should be bringing them up. That is why it is good that someone asked him if it was him because he has a way of bringing people down and making them feel like they are nothing. To feel that way really stinks because as a person if you know you shouldn't be treated like that then why just sit there and take it. Something should be done about it.
Reaction
So far the book it is going through different stages. Cormier writing style is very different then other authors. The story is told from different points of views throughout the book. The narrator wells to me I think it is mostly Jerry. The reason why is because in the story it somehow goes back to Jerry and his problems and reminisce on the things in his past. The thing that makes his writing so interesting is that the different things going on at once, and for some reason they all tie in together. So far this is a good book and i can't wait to read more.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Chocolate War (1-54)
Summary
In the book The Chocolate War the book begins with a strong sentence that makes you want to read more of it. It starts off with Jerry Renault being beaten when he is at football tryouts. The coach is impressed with him because he took the beaten, so he comes up to him the next day and askes him back. Then Jerry is so surprised he becomes ill and starts to throw-up in the bathroom, but as he is ill he dreams of making the team. The way the book descibes Obie from Cormier point of view is that he is boring, disgusting, and the thing that tops it off is that he is disgusted with a charcter named Archie Costello. Obie hates arguing with Archie because he always win because of his way of words and brillance. During this Archie is trying to figure out what ten kids he is going to use in his next assignment and Obie is taking notes. Then Obie thinks that Jerry shouldn't get an assignment because his mom just died, but Archie thinks it is apporpriate to give him the assignment now. Archie tells Obie to put his name down for the "chocolates". Archie and Brother Leon is having a conversation about the chocolate sale and he says that the school needs to make 20,000 boxes. Archie doesn't know why Brother Leon has called him to talk about it. Brother Leon is described as a sarcastic and powerful-hungry; for making fun of kids for not particular reason. Then later Goubert a.k.a known as The Goober receives an order to attend a Vigils meeting to get his assignment. His assignment is to sneak into Brother Leon's room after school and unscrew everything such as his desks, handles, chairs, and doors. He has to unscrew them until they are barely in the hole, so when the students come and sit down they would fall. After that Archie has to face the Black Box. The Black Box is a mechanism to keep the leader of the Vigils in check. In the box there is five white marbles and one black one. If he draws the black one he has to do the assignment himself. In three years Archie never drew a black marble, so of course he takes out a white marble and Boober has to do the assignment. In class Leon picks on a kid name Bailey. Bailey is really smart and Leon thinks he is cheating and he says he have never cheated before. Now Emile Janza is a school thug, and even though Archie he ends up working with Emile. Now Goober he has been in Brother Eugene room and he been unscrewing for about six hours and he is no where near done. So two people in masks comes help him finish the job. As a result it took nine hours to finish. Jerry is there sitting and remembering his moms illness and her death. Him and his father basically grew apart, but on the day on his mom funneral they shared their emotions. The chocolate sale begins at school.
Quote
"Was life that dull, that boring and humdrum for people? He hated to think of his own life stretching ahead of him that way, a long succession of days and nights that were fine, fine—not good, not bad, not great, not lousy, not exciting, not anything( Cormier 51)." This quote introduces Jerry's father. Ever since his mom died his father really have no feeling on life. He thinks everything is fine and it really isn't. Jerry's father is an example of a person who doesn't and will not disturb the universe. Jerry thinks that his father is less of a human and plus he have mixed emotions that he doesn't know how to deal with them.
Reaction
At first as I started to read the book I found it very interesting. Robert Cormier writing is way different then many other books that i have read. As I was reading the book I found it confusing at first then as I started to read more it all started to click. To me his writing skills is funny, but then serious. It is like a reality that just hits you in the face. Overall I'm happy that I chose this book because I think I'm going to love this book.
In the book The Chocolate War the book begins with a strong sentence that makes you want to read more of it. It starts off with Jerry Renault being beaten when he is at football tryouts. The coach is impressed with him because he took the beaten, so he comes up to him the next day and askes him back. Then Jerry is so surprised he becomes ill and starts to throw-up in the bathroom, but as he is ill he dreams of making the team. The way the book descibes Obie from Cormier point of view is that he is boring, disgusting, and the thing that tops it off is that he is disgusted with a charcter named Archie Costello. Obie hates arguing with Archie because he always win because of his way of words and brillance. During this Archie is trying to figure out what ten kids he is going to use in his next assignment and Obie is taking notes. Then Obie thinks that Jerry shouldn't get an assignment because his mom just died, but Archie thinks it is apporpriate to give him the assignment now. Archie tells Obie to put his name down for the "chocolates". Archie and Brother Leon is having a conversation about the chocolate sale and he says that the school needs to make 20,000 boxes. Archie doesn't know why Brother Leon has called him to talk about it. Brother Leon is described as a sarcastic and powerful-hungry; for making fun of kids for not particular reason. Then later Goubert a.k.a known as The Goober receives an order to attend a Vigils meeting to get his assignment. His assignment is to sneak into Brother Leon's room after school and unscrew everything such as his desks, handles, chairs, and doors. He has to unscrew them until they are barely in the hole, so when the students come and sit down they would fall. After that Archie has to face the Black Box. The Black Box is a mechanism to keep the leader of the Vigils in check. In the box there is five white marbles and one black one. If he draws the black one he has to do the assignment himself. In three years Archie never drew a black marble, so of course he takes out a white marble and Boober has to do the assignment. In class Leon picks on a kid name Bailey. Bailey is really smart and Leon thinks he is cheating and he says he have never cheated before. Now Emile Janza is a school thug, and even though Archie he ends up working with Emile. Now Goober he has been in Brother Eugene room and he been unscrewing for about six hours and he is no where near done. So two people in masks comes help him finish the job. As a result it took nine hours to finish. Jerry is there sitting and remembering his moms illness and her death. Him and his father basically grew apart, but on the day on his mom funneral they shared their emotions. The chocolate sale begins at school.
Quote
"Was life that dull, that boring and humdrum for people? He hated to think of his own life stretching ahead of him that way, a long succession of days and nights that were fine, fine—not good, not bad, not great, not lousy, not exciting, not anything( Cormier 51)." This quote introduces Jerry's father. Ever since his mom died his father really have no feeling on life. He thinks everything is fine and it really isn't. Jerry's father is an example of a person who doesn't and will not disturb the universe. Jerry thinks that his father is less of a human and plus he have mixed emotions that he doesn't know how to deal with them.
Reaction
At first as I started to read the book I found it very interesting. Robert Cormier writing is way different then many other books that i have read. As I was reading the book I found it confusing at first then as I started to read more it all started to click. To me his writing skills is funny, but then serious. It is like a reality that just hits you in the face. Overall I'm happy that I chose this book because I think I'm going to love this book.
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