“I met a priest, a man of joy, and this helped to change my belief to one of joy rather than fear”(Writing A Life). By simply refusing to sell chocolates in Trinity’s annual fundraiser, Jerry is humiliated, beaten up, and almost killed. The reader gets an insight into how destructive life can be as a student. Throughout The Chocolate War and other works, Robert Cormier exhibits his dislike of Catholic school systems through students’ distorted view on life because of his distressing personal experiences with the strict religion.
Whether Cormier takes from his personal experiences, or things that have happened to his family, he always pulls inspiration from his life. Cormier was born and raised in Leominster, Massachusetts. As he got into writing, he had to find a point
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Early on in his career, Cormier was known to create stories that captured human interest, even when he was critic for his local newspaper. During an interview with the School Library Journal, he claimed an interest in intimidation and manipulation, along with the abuse of authority, as clearly seen in The Chocolate War (Author Page). Cormier’s love for writing was established in the mid 1900’s, which greatly shaped his mature writing style (Robert Cormier). “It was as if somebody had dropped The Bomb” (Cormier 69), Cormier writes about one of the Vigil’s assignments being “The Bomb”, this is most definitely a reference to the atomic bombings of 1945. Cormier grew up in a time where there was always a widespread fear of getting bombed and he transferred this fear over to his writing. After the assignment is completed and the chaos
The book “Hiroshima,” written by John Hersey is an alluring piece coupled with an underlining, mind grabbing message. The book is a biographical text about the lives of six people: Miss Sasaki, Dr. Fujii, Mrs. Nakamura, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki, and Rev. Tanimoto, in Hiroshima, Japan. It speaks of these aforementioned individuals’ lives, following the dropping of the world’s first atomic bomb on 06 Aug 1945, and how it radically changed them, forever. John Hersey, the author of “Hiroshima,” attempts to expose the monstrosity of the atomic bomb, through his use of outstanding rhetoric, descriptive language, and accounts of survivors. He also attempts to correlate the Japanese civilians of Hiroshima to the American public, in hope that Americans
The Chocolate War is a story which takes place in New England in the 1970's. Most of the events happen in a Catholic school. Since this school was exclusively for boys, they were constantly trying to prove their power over each other. The story is told in third person omniscient. The story's mood is suspenseful. With each page turn one wonders if Jerry will take or refuse his chocolates. The protagonist of this story is Jerry Renault and the antagonist in Archie Costello. Jerry is a very quiet fifteen year old boy. He is also the quarterback for the Trinity High junior varsity football team. He is a very troubled individual due to his mother's death. He appears to be angry toward the whole world. Jerry is very ordinary and wants more change in his life instead of the same old thing. Archie Costello is 17 year old boy who is a member of the high school's very prestigious club called The Vigils. Archie is the "assignment giver". He gives assignments to the younger class men to do very mischievous things; for example, loosening all screws on desk chairs and chalkboards so that they will fall apart when students and teachers touch them. Archie is very clever and conniving.
The non-fiction book Hiroshima by John Hersey is an engaging text with a powerful message in it. The book is a biographical text about lives of six people Miss Sasaki, Dr. Fujii, Mrs. Nakamura, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki and Rev. Tanimoto in Hiroshima, Japan and how their lives completely changed at 8:15 on the 6th of August 1945 by the dropping of the first atomic bomb. The author, John Hersey, through his use of descriptive language the in book Hiroshima exposes the many horrors of a nuclear attack.
Cormier was born in Massachusetts. Like his characters in The Chocolate War, he attended a private Catholic school in New England. In the school, like many other students, he had both bad and good experiences. One of these good experiences originated from a teacher who had enjoyed Cormier's writing and encouraged him to continue. Although this teacher started Cormier on his career path, her presence and importance in his life could not balance out the horrible incident he was faced with at that school. One day in class, Cormier saw his house on fire from the window. Knowing that some family members had been home at the time, he wanted to leave class immediately and hurry back to his home. This was before cell phones, so he could not just dial
Think nothing exciting ever happens in the life of a clergyman? These two thrilling books, A Morbid Taste for Bones, by Ellis Peters, and Favorite Father Brown Stories, by G.K. Chesterton, may make you reassess that presupposition. Favorite Father Brown Stories concerns an English priest named Brown who lives in 19th century England, and takes on various odd cases that come his way in everyday life. Alternately, A Morbid Taste for Bones concerns an older monk named Brother Cadfael who lives in the middle ages, and is caught in the middle of the murder of a farmer in a small village. Desperately, he tries to figure out who murdered the man, to appease the farmer’s livid daughter Sioned. Since both Brown and Cadfael are of the priesthood, it is fascinating comparing the two characters and seeing how they are similar, and how they are different. Particularly, they contrast in terms of the time and setting they live in, and also in their methods of solving cases, but they are similar in how they both share the same view that man is a depraved being, capable of both great virtue and terrible evil.
Vonnegut's writing style throughout the novel is very flip, light, and sarcastic. The narrator's observations and the events occurring during the novel reflect a dark view of humanity which can only be mocked by humor. At the beginning of the novel the narrator is researching for a book he is writing. The book was to be about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the lives of the people who created the bomb. The narrator travels through the plot of the story, with characters flying in and out, in almost a daze. He is involved in events which are helplessly beyond his control, but which are inevitably leading to a destination at the end.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was written in the late 1940s to the early 1950s in the United States. To start, this time period was after people had witnessed the Manhattan Project and its devastating effect on many countries. It was initiated “in 1939, [when] the German-born scientist Albert Einstein had informed President Roosevelt about the possibility of creating a superbomb. It would produce a powerful explosion by splitting the atom” (Stokesbury). This led to the creation of the atomic bomb. This innovative bomb was then dropped “...on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, another B-29 dropped a 22-kiloton implosion-type fission bomb on Nagasaki. These bombs largely destroyed both cities” (Kroenig). The effects of the atomic bombs were disastrous; more than 150,000 people were killed instantly by the bomb and many more were killed from radiation and other aftermath (Hall). Similarly the immensity of the nuclear weapons is translated into Bradbury’s science fiction novel. At the last scene, the city “erected at last in gouts of shattered concrete and sparkles of torn metal into a mural hung like a reversed avalanche, a million colors, a million oddities, a door where a window should be, a top for a bottom, a side for a back, and then the city rolled over and found dead” (Bradbury 153). The readers have a better interpretation of
Robert Cormier writes novels for teenagers. In his books he uses violence and power and other features that the adolescence age group usually use. A lot of people are disturbed by the way he uses violence the way he does at the end of the novel. Cormier wrote the Chocolate War during the 1970's during the hippie era. The story takes place at a higher intelligence level than most of the outside world.
“The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood” (Anaya 1). The transition from childhood to adolescence is dotted with self discovery, and the experiences that the earth provides shape individuals in this search. In Rudolfo Anaya’s novel “Bless Me, Ultima,” the protagonist Antonio is faced with the challenge of growing up, and through his key experiences, he finds out a lot about himself. Author Rudolfo Anaya uses dueling allusions from Catholicism and traditional Chicano culture to demonstrate how his novel “Bless Me, Ultima” is an example of a religious bildungsroman.
What makes a war story a war story? Is the truths or the lies? Or is the deaths? The lives? Slaughterhouse-Five is considered one of the greatest anti-war books of its time, the story a reflection of Kurt Vonnegut's trials and tribulations surrounding the infamous firebombing of Dresden. This American classic is also seen as an example of Post-Modern fiction. Post-Modernism revolves around resistance and is seen as a reaction against Enlightenment style thinking and otherwise Modernist approaches to literature. What better way to resist than give gritty detail of a government cover up such as the massacre of Dresden? Vonnegut's black humor along side his satiric voice, his use of fragmentation, and his application of metafiction transforms Slaughterhouse-Five into a hard-hitting piece of Post-Modern work.
2. 	In the exposition of The Chocolate War, Jerry Renault, the freshman quarterback, was receiving constant blows from opposing players. Jerry was trying to get the ball to his receiver, the Goober, but not having any luck.
Why would a person decide to betray the beliefs they had fought so hard for? In Robert Cormiers novel The Chocolate War, the character of Jerry Renault changes drastically from a rebel to a follower in the end. The school gang known as the vigils and his moral beliefs motivates Jerry’s actions. He feels he must take a stand against evil. Jerry can be considered a hero because of his beliefs. In the end however he gives in to the things he fought against and becomes a follower.
The speaker watches people who are in close proximity to the bomb and describes their actions, yet the way the speaker describes them is dehumanizing. The speaker describes a man as a “fat baldy” (23) and a girl as “dumb” (19). These descriptions used by the speaker to describe those who are about to die, shows an uncaring and dehumanizing tone. The characteristics used were negative and cause a lack of empathy for those who are about to die, thus an uncaring tone from the speaker. Another time when the speaker has a uncaring tone was when throughout the poem the speaker counts down the time of when the bomb will go off. The focus on the countdown of the bomb not any emotions about the impending death of others expresses how the speaker does not care about the people who are about to die. The speaker treats the time left on the bomb like the time of day, even though it is the time left some people have to live. The over dramatized time telling of the bomb expresses a dehumanizing tone towards the people because the speaker treats the inevitable death of others as an everyday occurrence, and rather focuses on time. Besides the speaker repeating the time left the bomb has to go off, the speaker also does not describe when the bomb actually goes off. The speaker says, “should be any moment now, Not yet. yes, this is it (29-31). The
“The Destructors” by Graham Greene is a short story that elaborates the revolution of a group of youths who had grown up in the post-war conditions of life, and never knew a reality other than war and its result against society. This drama story helps the readers to understand why a group of teen boys are against the society. When first reading "The Destructors" by Graham Greene, one may think they are just reading a story of childhood behavior. However, there is a deeper connection than this that must be made in order to understand the author's intentions. "The Destructors" conveys the story of a gang of kids who targets to demolish an old man's house, as it was the only beautiful house remaining in the neighborhood after the destruction of bombing in World War II. 'All this hate and love,' he said, 'it's soft, it's hooey. There's only things, Blackie” (Greene, 1954,p.9). This line from the story shows that the gang and all children in the story are affected by the war, but are even mor...
A: “Here 's what would happen. The teacher would suddenly yell “Drop!” randomly during class. We would duck and cover under our desks and stay there for a certain length of time; I don’t remember how long that was. Once the drill was over, the teacher would say all clear. I think this was in the early 50’s. I was somewhere around fifteen years old. It was definitely frightening to us because we were all well aware of what the threat was. Like I said, the pictures we often saw in the newspapers had put the ideas in our head. There was a time, during my early teens, where I thought I wouldn’t live past twenty because of the bomb. It didn’t get in the way of living a normal life, however. You wouldn 't wake up every day thinking you were going to die of the bomb that day. Although, the threat was always in the back of our heads. Even though this was during the 50’s; a very peaceful time domestically. Th...