The Chocolate War Background About The Chocolate War The most
popular of Cormier's novels for young adults, and the one with
which he is most identified, The Chocolate War is a book that
incites extreme opinions in most of its readers. The majority of
critics either find the book offensive or excellent - very few
are lukewarm about its value. It is a book of beguiling
simplicity that nevertheless explores universal human themes
about the struggle against oppression and a pack mentality, and
the assertion of character during the formative years of young
adulthood. The book has been banned more often than any of
Cormier's other novels, and is considered by many to be an
offensive work that presents a skewed version of reality. It has
also been lauded as a strikingly realistic story of the
struggles of young people, both against authority and within
themselves. The Chocolate War is set in a middle-class private
high school run by Catholic brothers, in the fictional town of
Monument, Massachusetts (a town much li