The Chocolate War
First edition
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| Author | Robert Cormier |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young-adult novel |
| Publisher | Pantheon Books |
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Publication date
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1974 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 272 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 722968 |
| LC Class | PZ7.C81634 Ch |
| Followed by | Beyond the Chocolate War |
The Chocolate War is a young adult novel by American author Robert Cormier. First published in 1974, it was adapted into a film in 1988. Although it received mixed reviews at the time of its publication, some reviewers have argued it is one of the best young adult novels of all time. Set at a fictional Catholic high school, the story depicts a secret student organization's manipulation of the student body, which descends into cruel and ugly mob mentality against a lone, non-conforming student. Because of the novel's language, the concept of a high school secret society using intimidation to enforce the cultural norms of the school and various characters' sexual ponderings, it has been embroiled in censorship controversies and appeared as third on the American Library Association's list of the "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000–2009." A sequel was published in 1985 called Beyond the Chocolate War.
Jerry Renault is a freshman attending an all-boys Catholic high school called Trinity, while coping with depressive feelings and existential questions that stem largely from his mother's recent death and his father's enduring grief. Jerry is quickly recruited onto Trinity's football team, where he meets "The Goober," a fellow freshman and instant friend.
Trinity's vice-principal, Brother Leon, has recently become acting headmaster and overextends his rising ambition by committing Trinity to selling double the previous year's amount of chocolates during an annual fundraising event, quietly enlisting the support of Archie Costello, the genesis and leader behind The Vigils: the school's cruelly manipulative secret society of student pranksters.
Archie arrogantly plans to alternate between betraying and supporting Leon in a frenzied series of . His first "assignment" is to incite Jerry to refuse to sell any chocolate for ten days. However, Jerry, inspired after reading a quotation inside his locker: "Do I dare disturb the universe?" from T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," feels strangely determined to sell nothing even after the ten days have passed, thus estranging himself from both Leon and The Vigils.
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