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Cormier and Satan
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From: Neil Sklar <rp_mcmurphy>
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 14:10:14 -0400
I'm really glad to see the Cormier discussion fired up again. I read a lot of his work as a teenager and credit books like The Chocolate War (and films like Cool Hand Luke) with my regard for individual liberties. I should say that as a teenager, my life was sometimes difficult because I looked up to characters like Jerry (whose actions I did not think were at all arbitrary or born out of simple stubbornness), and tried to act with the courage of my convictions. I'd even say that I was sometimes miserable as a result. But looking back, I wouldn't change a thing. I couldn't be the person I am today without having had those experiences, and I like the person I am today.
The sense of hope that I feel from The Chocolate War is a sort of what-if hope. What if the people of the world had stood up against the Nazis? They finally did. What if they hadn't? What if the artistic community had stood up against the blacklist? They did, and the blacklist was eventually broken. (People have discussed The Chocolate War in terms of the holocaust, and it certainly applies. But when I reread the book recently, it made me think of Senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee.) What if members of the Trinity Community had fought back against the chocolate sale and the Vigils? I don't know. But is seems clear to me that Cormier is implying that things would have gone differently if Jerry hadn't been alone, if the people who told him how cool and brave he was in the beginning had stood with him when things got rough.
Evil, at it's most powerful, is insidious. Children who are not exposed to the dark underbelly of humanity are easy targets. It is only by making them aware that such evil exists that they can be equipped to stand up to it. Cormier's work is not dangerous. It makes us realize what is out there and say to ourselves, "I don't want to be a part of that" or maybe even "I wonder what I can do to stop that sort of thing from happening."
And now for a question about the literature itself, rather than about the controversy: Who is Satan, Archie or Brother Leon?
Received on Thu 23 Aug 2001 01:10:14 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 14:10:14 -0400
I'm really glad to see the Cormier discussion fired up again. I read a lot of his work as a teenager and credit books like The Chocolate War (and films like Cool Hand Luke) with my regard for individual liberties. I should say that as a teenager, my life was sometimes difficult because I looked up to characters like Jerry (whose actions I did not think were at all arbitrary or born out of simple stubbornness), and tried to act with the courage of my convictions. I'd even say that I was sometimes miserable as a result. But looking back, I wouldn't change a thing. I couldn't be the person I am today without having had those experiences, and I like the person I am today.
The sense of hope that I feel from The Chocolate War is a sort of what-if hope. What if the people of the world had stood up against the Nazis? They finally did. What if they hadn't? What if the artistic community had stood up against the blacklist? They did, and the blacklist was eventually broken. (People have discussed The Chocolate War in terms of the holocaust, and it certainly applies. But when I reread the book recently, it made me think of Senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee.) What if members of the Trinity Community had fought back against the chocolate sale and the Vigils? I don't know. But is seems clear to me that Cormier is implying that things would have gone differently if Jerry hadn't been alone, if the people who told him how cool and brave he was in the beginning had stood with him when things got rough.
Evil, at it's most powerful, is insidious. Children who are not exposed to the dark underbelly of humanity are easy targets. It is only by making them aware that such evil exists that they can be equipped to stand up to it. Cormier's work is not dangerous. It makes us realize what is out there and say to ourselves, "I don't want to be a part of that" or maybe even "I wonder what I can do to stop that sort of thing from happening."
And now for a question about the literature itself, rather than about the controversy: Who is Satan, Archie or Brother Leon?
Received on Thu 23 Aug 2001 01:10:14 PM CDT
