The Chocolate War
The Chocolate War: To Ban or To Not Be Banned
In Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War, the story itself may be considered a little controversial. Although the storyline is interesting and many people had their eyes glued to the page, others believe that some parts in the book are too controversial that it should be banned in schools. I personally believe that even though The Chocolate War was an interesting book to read, it should be banned from schools. While reading The Chocolate War, I noticed that the way Cormier depicts the females’ roles in this book was a little sexist. Discrimination against genders is an arguable topic. When Archie thinks by himself waiting for Obie, he realizes that he’s been so busy with his work that he “doesn’t seem to have any time to himself anymore, not even time for girls” and he thinks back to the days when “you could let your eyes devour some luscious sights and usually talk one of [the girls] into the car, for a ride home” and usually stop once in awhile for some detours. In my opinion, Archie treats girls just as eye-candy. He doesn’t care about their personality or their well-being but only their physical appearance. While Jerry was lying down trying to fall asleep, he laid their thinking about the girl and the way “her sweater had bulged beautifully, her schoolbooks pressed against her rounded breasts” and he only wished for the books to be his hands. All Jerry was thinking about was his longing to touch the girl’s breasts. Instead of thinking about what truly makes her beautiful, he laid there in bed thinking of her breasts and nothing else. Girls in this book are just thought of as something pretty to look at. Another disputable topic is the way religion is portrayed in the book. Trinity High School is an all boys Catholic school, but the students are very sacrilegious. When Obie and Archie are working on assignments to give to people, Obie swears and Archie acts like he cares but he later admits that “when you
In Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War, the story itself may be considered a little controversial. Although the storyline is interesting and many people had their eyes glued to the page, others believe that some parts in the book are too controversial that it should be banned in schools. I personally believe that even though The Chocolate War was an interesting book to read, it should be banned from schools. While reading The Chocolate War, I noticed that the way Cormier depicts the females’ roles in this book was a little sexist. Discrimination against genders is an arguable topic. When Archie thinks by himself waiting for Obie, he realizes that he’s been so busy with his work that he “doesn’t seem to have any time to himself anymore, not even time for girls” and he thinks back to the days when “you could let your eyes devour some luscious sights and usually talk one of [the girls] into the car, for a ride home” and usually stop once in awhile for some detours. In my opinion, Archie treats girls just as eye-candy. He doesn’t care about their personality or their well-being but only their physical appearance. While Jerry was lying down trying to fall asleep, he laid their thinking about the girl and the way “her sweater had bulged beautifully, her schoolbooks pressed against her rounded breasts” and he only wished for the books to be his hands. All Jerry was thinking about was his longing to touch the girl’s breasts. Instead of thinking about what truly makes her beautiful, he laid there in bed thinking of her breasts and nothing else. Girls in this book are just thought of as something pretty to look at. Another disputable topic is the way religion is portrayed in the book. Trinity High School is an all boys Catholic school, but the students are very sacrilegious. When Obie and Archie are working on assignments to give to people, Obie swears and Archie acts like he cares but he later admits that “when you