The Chocolate WarEssay Preview: The Chocolate WarReport this essayYoung Adult Writing Style of Robert CormiersNovelsLiterature has existed as far back as man can remember it. It was created by the necessity of mankind for it, whether it was for recording history like The Bible, making news such as in newspapers, or simply writing a story for the enjoyment of the reader or to express a certain point. It is through literature that a lot of people have made a living, and some have even become world famous, each in their own unique way.
One of those authors is the well known American author, Robert Cormier. He is an example of those authors who write novels for the readers to enjoy, while expressing some of his ideas through them. Cormier writes for everybody to enjoy, however, it is the young adult audience to whom he owes much of his success. The Chocolate War and I Am the Cheese, show his unique writing style that captivates young adult readers, through language, characters, different genres, and other literary devices such as narration style and novel structure.
The following pages will discuss the writing style of Cormier, that makes him so successful with young adults, especially with this novel. First it will look at the difficulties and way of life of those young readers for which he writes. Then they will examine the different ways through which he is able to capture the young adults
Arguedas 2attention. Finally they will discuss the structure of his novels and how his writing styleconnects to it, making the novels so intriguing for young adults.In todays society, and any other society, teens deal with a lot of issues, from drugs, to peer pressure, from corruption, to loneliness, etc. Cormier is conscious of this and uses this when writing his novels. He is an observer of the way life works and the problems that young adults have. He understands that adolescents are vulnerable , and that innocence does not protect one from evil, that anyone is vulnerable at any age (Stines). The Chocolate War, originated when Cormier saw his son come home from school with a box-full of chocolates he had to sale. Cormiers son was allowed not to sell the chocolates, and the next day returned them, without any opposition from the faculty. Then began to wonder, what would happen if someone had opposed that his son returned the chocolates? What if his son had rebelled against tradition. What if this?, or what if that? Cormier played with this idea until he came out with the final product, The Chocolate War (Stines).
I Am the Cheese, was also originated from Cormiers study on society and the way it affects the young adult. After reading in a magazine about the U.S. Relocation Program, he wondered what kinds of troubles would a child like that have? What would he go through? What would he think? What would he do? Cormier pondered for months and studied well the program and what teens go through, until he wrote: I Am the Cheese (Stines).
When writing novels, like those two, Cormier inclines more towards the drama genre, however, he includes bits and pieces of other genres within the drama. For
Arguedas 3instance, The Chocolate War falls into the drama genre, however it has some other genres in it, like suspense. Suspense is seen throughout much of the dominates much of The Chocolate War, especially when The Vigils came into the scene. They were a gang if students which used violence to coerce the students to do “assignments” and through that violence, managed to impugn enough horror in the students to cause a suspenseful aura whenever they appeared. Even Jerry suffered from it, one day at a meeting with them, after refusing to sell the chocolates once again. Archie, the leader of The Vigils was the one that caused the most fear since he was the leader and that did not exclude Jerry. “Now, he [Archie] just watched the kid Renault, looking as if he was ready to faint with fright, his face pale and eyes wide with dread, and Archie having fun with him” (Chocolate War 171). Cormier uses this mix in genres with expertise, to capture the readers attention and as a method to involve them more in the story. Another example of suspense in the novel is when Goober was loosening the screws of the chairs in one of the rooms, as an assignment of The Vigils:
A noise from the corridor. That was another thing Ñ* it was spooky. Allkinds of noises. The walls spoke their own creaky language, the floorscrackled, motors hummed somewhere, the humming almost human.Enough to scare guy to death. He hadnt been this scared since he was justa kid and woke up in the middle of the night calling for his mother.Thump. There Ñ* another noise. Helooked with dread toward thedoorway, not wanting to look but unable to resist the temptation,remembering his old nightmare (Cormier 56).Arguedas 4In I Am the Cheese, Cormier once again used the drama genre, however, he also used mystery within the story. The story begins and develops, as well as the drama aspect
of it, a boy named Adam, riding the bike, the things he did in the past, the people he meets, etc. At the same time, the mystery starts to develop as well. There are flashbacks and the boy talks about his past, although the reader never quite knows what the boy is talking about until the end, because in those flashbacks there were other flashbacks, puzzling the readers and intriguing them, for example:
A: Its as if I was born that night. I mean, became a person, a humanbeing in my own right. Before that, nothing. Or those impressions again-lights-smell-perfume, the perfume my mother always wore, lilac. Nothingelse. And then that night-(12-second interval.)T: Tell me about it.He was in bed and the sheets were twisted around him and his body washot, his eyes like raw onions, head aching. He lifted his head toward thedoor. The door was partially open, allowing a slant of feeble light into theroom. (I Am the Cheese 17)This flashback within flashback makes the reader crave the story more and read along, to find out what mystery is perturbing Adam throughout the story. This style dominates the novel and therefore the reader is intrigued throughout the book, trying to find out what or who is the villain, what is causing Adam all this trouble. Scott McLeod stated that this particular novel has more impact than his previous works because the “evil
-solution character-adventures are very important and as a result, the story will be very much in balance.
This flashback is an excellent example of Scott’s brilliance, a powerful one in the vein of the original ‘Misfits’ story of the same name, which I’m still trying to finish! However, here we are at the end of an era in which Scott had written the original trilogy, yet still was a kid. And there is so much more to this book. (see review of, 1st chapter)That is what I’m looking for in any teen novel, and this novel has a few great and wonderful elements, some of which I will not necessarily add to this review, but will keep!So, if you like your teen novel to feel like an adult, look no further than this.The character is in great shape, but his strength is not as strong as the rest of the characters, especially the guy he’s in a fight with.
A: * It’s not a guy. He’s a kid. Told of his parents’ tragic fate, he’s happy with his life and happy about his life, but he’s completely different from his mother, he’s a kid now. He’s been living peacefully, in a nice neighborhood home where he has socializing with his parents.
A: It isn’t a kid. His character development in this novel does not take place either. He starts out pretty normal. He doesn’t fall in love just in the beginning, or think maybe he’ll go out with his parents into that beautiful countryside with an amazing sunset. They are the ones who have helped him through the bad times. Told of his mother’s death, he doesn’t believe it was his fault, but to find out that he was being bullied and hurt is the point of how he ended up with his life in trouble. He is a very nice fellow. His life as a young boy is one of great joy and he truly loved it.
This book is about a teenager. With such a little boy, how can you ever give up who you are in this world and how we are in this world, but at the same time, that’s a hard lesson to take and yet the fact of the matter is that his family has saved his life. He learns more about his self-worth and more importantly he can do this on his own without being dependent on anyone for his life. He’s a person who lives through the worst moments in his life and on each fateful day he will learn and overcome them. What’s his best friend and what’s his best friend? Well, I think that for us in fantasy is really a matter of who can do what and the one we have there.
Talks like an interesting book and is very well done by Scott, yet still well written. That said, my only rating is my general dislike of the characters or the characters in their situations, and I really do find this book to be very hard at times to follow even if I found it enjoyable.
There are some things I wish I could have followed more closely in, but in general we are dealing with children in this series so if you really have an interest in exploring fantasy the way Scott did (at least for an adult reader) I would recommend trying to follow his example and start reading the book.
This novel is not as good as I thought it was, the book is pretty much a total wash as well, but still well worth the $7 that you get for it.
Talks are pretty good, I really like the way I