Celebrating Banned Book Week with The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier - with a Giveaway!

Called the "Watergate of the high school level" by the National Council of Teachers of English in 1975 when The Chocolate War was first published, it's amazing to see how thirty-seven years has not changed much when it comes to the banning of books. It is startling at times when you consider how books are a target, and that seemingly thoughtful individuals can be pulled into the fray of banding together to support censorship. Surprising and disconcerting, to say the least, but I like to use the word frightening.

About twenty years ago, browsing the library in a small town in Maryland, I came across The Chocolate War. Intrigued, I checked it out and read it in one night, paging as fast as I could to find out what was to happen in this bully-filled boys' school in Massachusetts. It kept me up half the night, reading in my room by the hallway light. I was struck by this seemingly simple story of a school tasked to sell thousands of boxes of chocolates in order to satisfy the administrators, but I soon realized it was much more. Diving into issues that are still relevant today such as bullying and peer pressure, The Chocolate War is a reminder that not wanting to get involved can sometimes be much much worse.

I read this for Banned Book Week, hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, and I'm so glad I did. This is the 30th anniversary of Celebrating the Freedom to Read, and if you'd like to get a little more information from the American Library Association, click here or here. Reading The Chocolate War gave me a chance to walk down my bookish memory lane and to celebrate creativity, the honesty that writing can bring to the forefront things no one wants to talk about. The Chocolate War is a brilliant and insightful cut into high school life and it is timeless.

Jerry Renault is a freshman in high school, trying to secure a spot on the football team. After moving into an apartment with his father following his mother's painful battle against cancer, Jerry's sad memories are put to the side in order to concentrate on school. When the Vigils, a group of boys notorious for their "assignments" to students that result in outrageous pranks, assigns Jerry the task to not sell chocolates, Jerry takes it further by going longer than assigned, ultimately defying both the school's corruption and the Vigils. It is a story that reminds one to, no matter how difficult, not always follow peer pressure and to remember that one individual can, in fact, really change things. It may be dangerous, as in Jerry's case, but it may be the right thing to do.

And speaking of the right thing to do, let's talk about corruption. It surprises me that this book would ever be banned because Jerry's silent defiance against the corrupt school administrator, Brother Leon and Andrew of the Vigils, might be an uplifting story teenagers should read. It's an opportunity to stretch their minds, to really think about what is right and wrong, to openly discuss how people can be led astray so easily because "everyone else" feels a certain way. It might be tough to go against the grain, and sometimes it might be tough to even shift your thinking from what everyone else thinks you should be doing, to what you know to be right. The level of control exerted by varying age groups in this book is astounding, but it is not far at all from reality. To ban a book like this, or any book that makes one think, is book-blasphemous. Is there language in the book? Yes. Are there sexual images portrayed? Yep. Do teenagers talk and do the things that are in this book? Sure do. But do we really want to hide our heads in the sand and think that the book is the sole reason that puts ideas into kids' heads? Come on now. The Chocolate War is a gritty expose of high school corruption, of bullying,  ego, control, our primitive lust for barbaric events, and what happens when people abuse authority.

For those out there who are considering removing a book, please think hard. Re-examine what makes your opinion the right one over someone else's. What authority might you have to determine society's moral compass?

Passages of Note:

"Simple, Carter, simple." Archie reveled in the moment, basking in Carter's admiration, Carter who had humiliated him at The Vigils meeting. Someday he'd get even with Carter but at the moment it was satisfying enough to have Carter regarding him with awe and envy. "You see, Carter, people are two things: greedy and cruel. So we have a perfect set-up here. The greed part - a kid pays a buck for a chance to win a hundred. Plus fifty boxes of chocolates. The cruel part - watching two guys hitting each other, maybe hurting each other, while they're safe in the bleachers. That's why it works, Carter, because we're all bastards." (p.231)

Carter disguised his disgust. Archie repelled him in many ways but most of all by the way he made everybody feel dirty, contaminated, polluted. As if there was no goodness at all in the world. And yet Carter had to admit that he was looking forward to the fight, that he himself had bought not one but two tickets. Did that make him like everybody else - greedy and cruel, as Archie said? The question surprised him. Hell, he'd always thought of himself as one of the good guys. He often used his position as president of The Vigils to keep control of Archie, to prevent him from going overboard on assignments. But did that make him one of the good guys? The question bothered Carter. That's what he hated about Archie. He made you feel guilty all the time. Christ, the world couldn't be as bad as Archie said it was. But hearing the shouts of the kids in the bleachers, impatient for the fight to get underway, Carter wondered. (p.232)

FTC Disclosure: I checked this book out from my local Virginia Beach library.

Giveaway (ending October 7th) - One copy of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War.
(For US residents only due to shipping costs.)

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