The Chocolate War
Peer pressure plays a major factor in Robert Cormier's book, The Chocolate War. Peer pressure makes decisions, determines the outcome of conflicts, and often puts people in places they do not want to be in. Peer pressure is a big factor in The Chocolate War. A chocolate sale every year is tradition at Trinity High School, and the Headmaster is often the person who puts it on, but this year he is sick, so he issues a sale. Brother Leon puts on the sale for Trinity, but he has a few changes. First, he spends too much of the school's money buying the chocolates. Second, the chocolates are being sold for twice the amount of money they were the year before. Lastly, there are twice as many chocolates to be sold than the previous year. Leon goes to the Vigils for help. The Vigils are the most powerful organization in Trinity, and students look up to them. Archie Costello of the Vigils gives assignments to students and they have to do them, because he is powerful. Leon pulls Archie aside and tells him about the power he and the Vigils had in the school
Archie plans a fight no more than a quarter mile from the school, in the school's field. It is between Jerry and Emile, and the crowd. The crowd is involved because they pick the punches each person throws. A raffle for the chocolates is also being held just to get enough money for the unsold boxes. Each raffle ticket has a punch and a name on it, the name that is on the ticket is the person who throws the punch, and the punch written down on the ticket is the type of punch they throw. Archie knew before the match that Jerry would fight because it was his chance to prove he was better than Emile. Archie pressured him into fighting the same way he pressured Emile into fighting. The first few punches are given to Jerry. When it is Jerry's turn, he knocks Emile back who is surprised by the power the freshman has. Jerry slips up and tries to defend himself on an illegal move and Emile thinks all bets were off and starts beating him up at will. While this is going on, the crowd is cheering him on to finish him and Jerry's best friend is yelling for him.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Jerry Jerry's, Jerry Renault, Jerry Emile, School Headmaster, Costello Vigils, Janza Archie, Emile Jerry, Archie Emile, War Peer, Archie Vigils, sell chocolates, peer pressure, vigils help, leon pressuring vigils, help boost, archie vigils, chocolate war, chocolates sold, pressuring vigils, accept chocolates, vigils help boost, help boost sales, person throws,
Approximate Word count = 710
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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