image from www.virtualchocolate.com A webpage dedicated to my favorite novel
The Chocolate War
by Robert Cormier and the ramifications thereof.image from burroman.tripod.com
Dedicated to the Purple and Gold
"Now get out there and sell that candy!" "No!"
This text comes from my review of The Chocolate War on the Barnes & Noble website (www.bn.com):
Melanie N. Lee (mnl_1221@yahoo.com), a playwright, 44, from Queens, NY, March 7, 2001,
*****
My favorite novel after 24 years!
I read The Chocolate War as a 20-year-old college junior in 1977, and it's still my favorite novel. Someday I hope to write a stage version of it. I'm female, and as a kid I was constantly picked on by others. I'm also a nonconformist. Although an athlete and a likeable kid, and a bit of a loner, Jerry Renault has a reflective streak that's challenged by his poster: 'Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?' (from the T.S. Eliot poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock--also recommended). At first Jerry is unwilling to settle for a 'fine', that is, banal life like his Dad, and Jerry's 'No' to the school's fundraising chocolate sale is a baby step at self-assertion. However, Jerry's seemingly innocuous challenge is too much for the cowardly, greedy, and power-hungry Archie Costello, the Vigils, and Brother Leon, and soon they seek to destroy him. Jerry learns why most people would rather be 'fine' and banal than meaningful and challenging--the latter is far more dangerous. The Chocolate War has undertones of religious symbolism and socio-political protest, as well as the more obvious seamy images that make conservative parents and critics want to ban the book. (Believe me, at age 20, some of those 'dirty' references flew over my head!) I also believe that The Chocolate War, published in 1974, may have been foretelling the conservative backlash of the 1980s. I've been a born-again Christian since I was 22, and I highly recommend this novel to anyone 14 to adult, especially those who would enjoy and be inspired by a parable of how difficult it is to be truly good in an evil world. Some books of the Bible have more offensive and shocking imagery and scenes than The Chocolate War! My nieces will enter high school next year and I think I will give copies of the book to them (checking with their parents first!).
Also recommended: Novels: Blubber--Judy Blume (Chocolate War lite!); Beyond the Chocolate War and I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier. Plays: Equus and Amadeus by Peter Shaffer. Musical plays: West Side Story (Bernstein/Sondheim); Sweeney Todd (Sondheim).
This is my review on Amazon.com:
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful [as of 2/24/05]:
*****My favorite novel after 25 years!, July 8, 2002
Reviewer: Melanie N. Lee "mnl_1221" (Corona, New York United States)
I first read The Chocolate War as a 20-year-old in college, and it's still my favorite novel of all time. High school freshman Jerry Renault, who recently lost his mom to cancer, is challenged by the poster decorating his locker--"Do I dare disturb the universe?" (from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"). Brother Leon, acting headmaster of Jerry's school, Trinity High in Monument, MA, orders an unusually high number of chocolates for the school's annual sale. To insure success, Leon drafts Archie Costello, leader of the school's secret society, the Vigils, into backing his sale. Archie has plans of his own, using freshman Jerry to upset Leon's world. But when Jerry continues to refuse to join the sale, his "no" threatens the power of Leon, Archie, and the Vigils.
This story could be seen as an allegory about the collusion of evil forces and the risk of trying to be good or independent in an evil system that depends upon conformity to survive. Archie is the Devil, Leon a Faustian or Pharisaical hypocrite, and Jerry a reluctant revolutionary, almost a Christ figure. You can also enjoy this novel as a well-plotted, tense, action-packed story. The Chocolate War has also been seen as an indictment of 20th-century American masculinity: cruel, merciless, ashamed of tenderness and goodness, more concerned with pushing others around than with protecting them.
Jerry finds that the cost of being an individual can be astronomical--that most people find it safer to lead a bland, banal life than to "disturb the universe".
I've asked myself about a lot of my favorites--opera (Tosca), movie (West Side Story), musical (same)--and realized that many of them deal with a nonconformist standing against "the system". Look here: Amazon.com Listmania: Standing Against the System; for the nonconformist in you
jacket of the hardcover edition, from amazon.com
This novel won many awards, and birthed plenty of controversy which persists to this day.
Robert Cormier page, from Bridgewater College (VA): contains links to articles and papers.
The Chocolate War page from the publisher Random House
Beyond the Chocolate War page, from Random House
pic from www.vachss.com
from an Amazon.com review of Beyond the Chocolate War:
My one knock would be that the novel seems less focused than The Chocolate War, and that at some points the actions of the characters seem to weaken the magic of the first novel, if that makes any sense. This book has the feeling of a middle book in a trilogy. It is too bad that we've lost Cormier. I would very much have liked to see how it all would have ended.
--Karl J. Kendall, 1/13/01
I was creatively inspired by the release of Beyond the Chocolate War in 1985 (more on that later), and in 1986 I wrote Cormier a letter, mentioning "the inevitable third book in which Jerry returns to Trinity". Cormier wrote back, saying, in effect, "As for a third book, who knows? I admit Archie and Jerry and the others are still on my mind."
The Chocolate War (1988) page of rottentomatoes.com
The Chocolate War (1988) page of imdb.com
Chocolate War film reviews from epinions.com
Joseph Robinette has adapted several children's stories including Charlotte's Web and Alice in Wonderland. I've read the script: a interesting adaptation with a "Greek chorus" of kids echoing the major character's thoughts and portraying the minor characters. Robinette's version stays basically true to the original ending.
I hadn't seen any word of productions of Robinette's play on the Internet--
then suddenly in 2007, at least two productions, and a reading!
He must really be pushing to publicize this play! Anyway,
Mr. Robinette, congratulations!
From the Newburyport Literary Festival, Newburyport, MA, April 2007:
Fiction, Saturday 6:00 PM, Nicholson Hall
Join this local, non-profit theatre for an evening of staged readings from plays chosen to provoke thought and discussion. Founders Lisa Zaleski and Stephanie Williams have selected scenes from A Separate Peace by Nancy Pahl Gilsenan, The Chocolate War by Joseph Robinette... Artists from Newburyport will bring these literary works to life and encourage audience members to question the characters and their choices... Any money [donation] will help P.O.V. Stage Company produce their second summer season, featuring some of the works listed above.
CampusI.com: The Chocolate War, play by Joseph Robinette
Places to buy the stage script.
Way back in 1985, when I found out about the sequel to The Chocolate War, I started musing...medidating, really...about the original novel--then these lyrics started coming to my mind. It was August 5, I think, and that night I performed at the Jones Beach Theater with a choir backing Foreigner on the song "I Want to Know What Love Is". My family had a party at a bar later that night, and I was at a table jotting down notes.
A year later I sent a few scenes and lyrics to Robert Cormier. He said he liked my talent and my fresh approach to his work. However, by that time, the dramatic rights were taken, for the subsequent movie.
I entered graduate school at Queens College in 1999. In February 2001 I dreamed that Sting was singing over the radio an altered version of my song for the musical, "Do I Dare?" I looked up Robert Cormier on the Internet the next day and found out he had died the previous November.
Anyway, not knowing about Robinette's adaptation, I decided that my Master's thesis would be a musical script adaptation of The Chocolate War (lyrics only). Said thesis now sits in the English Department and the Library of Queens College, where I earned my degree in English-Creative Writing in 2003.
Will anything come of this musical adaptation? Time will tell.
"Chocolate War" YouTube search
(Beware: some videos are merely kids having chocolate fights!)
The Chocolate War (1974)
the original novel, about freshman Jerry Renault's mysterious refusal to participate in Trinity High's annual chocolate sale.
Beyond the Chocolate War (1985)
the sequel, the following spring semester, when the Trinity boys, especially Obie, try to deal with the aftermath of the fall chocolate sale.
pic from International Edible Book Festival
The Trilogy That Wasn't: No Chocolate War 3
The Chocolate War (1988), the movie
Directed by Keith Gordon, this movie received mixed reviews, though some devotees consider this film underrated and underappreciated. Some might be bothered by the story's altered ending.
The Chocolate War (2001), the stage play
image from The Chocolate War at the Prana Center, Holliston, MA, May 2007
image from The Chocolate War at Foundations Private School, Aurora, ON, Canada, May 2007
(clink School Plays link, then Chocolate War poster)
Staged Readings with P.O.V. Stage Company—Seeing All Points of View
(Note: I was told via e-mail that in the end The Chocolate War
wasn't included in the readings, due to casting problems.)
image from fortunefundraising.com
Chocolate War, a musical play (20??)
Or 2002/03, if you count the writing of the draft and the filing of the MA thesis.
YouTube.com, Google Video, and The Chocolate War
In the age of the personal video gone public, quite a few amateur
videographers, mostly high school students, have posted their own
excerpts or versions of Cormier's novel. They've also posted
clippings from the 1988 movie.
"Chocolate War" Google Video search
Edible Book Fest 2005: Chocolate War by Meg Bickel
The Chocolate War, the opera? The cartoon? The TV series? The ballet?
again, time will tell!
Wanna talk over a cup of hot chocolate?