Archie, a psychopathic character, ‘usually manages to persuade one of them into his car’. The Chocolate War contains implied rape of girls at the nearby girls’ high school. Even when he writes a female character (not in this book) she self objectifies or she is murdered or both. Cormier never proved he could write well-rounded girls, to be fair. This novel has been widely banned, but my reasons for the content note are probably different and girl readers in particular deserve this acknowledged: Cormier writes consistently from the male point of view and objectifies female characters as part of his commentary on how awful boys can be. I feel readers deserve a content note about Robert Cormier novels, and about The Chocolate War in particular. This blog focuses on the storytelling: What writing lessons can we take from this young adult story from 1974, banned and beloved in equal measure? Content Note There are many resources for teaching and studying this book in a high school literature class. The novel begins with a juxtaposition in the title - chocolate is sweet and comforting war most certainly is not. Though this is not my favourite Cormier novel, it remains his best known. Heavy in symbolism and discussable themes, The Chocolate War also makes for a good case study in juxtaposition. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier was not written with a young adult audience in mind, but class sets of the book found their way into English departments all over the world.
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