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.