The Chocolate War (57-102)

Summary
Chapter Nine begins by tlking about the death of Jerry's mother. After his mom came back from the hospital because they couldn't do anything more to help her, Jerry, his father and his uncles would take turns going tinto her room and taking care of her. Sometimes Jerry would leave the room because watching his mothers body alterate was too much for him. When Jerry's mom died suddenly, at three-thirty in the afternoon,  Jerry was angry. He was angry at his inability to do anything to help his mother. Jerry felt abandoned and hopeless. Jerry and his father sold their house and they moved into a garden appartment because they couldn't live in a place full of memories of his mother. When Jerry went home one day after practice he saw his dad sleeping He had hear tht if people are maried for a long time then they can resemble each other, and suddenly Jerry could see his mother's face in his father's. Now Jerry had to go through seeing her in the coffin all over again. Then Jerry's father woke ups and they started talking about their day. Jerry's father told him that his job went fine. Jerry wondered what his life would be like when he would grow up. Jerry wanted to ask his father what his life had been like, but he didn't want to sound crzy so he decided not to talk about it at all. Brother Leon was the teacher that had asked for the help of the Vigils to sell boxes of chocolaters. When he was going over the names of the people and how many boxes of chocolate he had sold, students were laughing at the people had sold only 3 boxes in a week, but when Jerry's name came up everyone was quiet. The teacher knew that Jerry had not sold any boxes but he still called on Jerry, even though he still got the same negative response he always got. So brother Leon quickly called on a different student. At practice Jerry was again being tackled over and over again until he finally accomplished to give a pass to Goober who scored a touchdown. The coach was congratulating Jerry. When Jerry went back to his locker he saw a paper in his locker which read "Assignment". Jerry didn't know what the assignment was, but he knew who it was from, the Vigils.

Quotes
"As he hit the ground, Jerry heard the yells and the cheers that told him that The Goober ad caught the pass and gone on to score." (Cormier 77).

Response
I was  really happy when i read this quote. It made me feel better for Jerry. He was finally relieved and he could finally take a breath. I thought that this might be the beginning of the change that Jerry migh go through now. He will believe more in himself and that is going to help him throughtout his life, and he will not have to worry about his life being as boring as his father.

The Chocolate War 1-57

Summary
Jerry Renault is a freshman in high school. He is not a big kid, but he wants to make the football team. He tries out for the team, but since he is not a big kid, he gets beat up by the bigger guys. He keeps on getting tackled over and over again, but he doesn't stay down. Everytime he is down, he keeps on getting back up. The coach is really impressed by Jerry, and he decides to tell him to return the next day. Even though after the practice Jerry was feeling very sick, all he could think about was making the team. Obie and Archie are members of the Virgils. Archie is the leader of the gang. The Virgils is a gang in Jerry's school. Obie hates Archie, but he admires Archie's plans and his cleverness. Archie is known for giving students orders to do cruel things. Jerry is looking at a pornographic magazine at a store and he wants to buy it, but he feels that if he buys it, then he would be doing something that is wrong. When Jerry finally buys the magazine he went home, but he didn't know what to do with the magazine and he felt guilty, so he decided to throw it away.

Quotes
"THEY MURDERED HIM." ( Cormier 1)

Response
When I first read the quote I didn't really know what was going on because it was int he beginning of the story and I was very surprised of how a book can start with a quote such as this. But as I read through the story, I began to understand what it was about. The quote was talking about  Jerry getting tackled over and over in football. He wasn't a big guy, but he never stood down, which made the coach like him. Jerry wanted to become part of the football team so bad, that he was getting killed in the tryouts. In this quote we lean a lot about Jerry, we lean that if he wants something really bad, then he is going to keep at it untill he achieves it.