Headings:
Johntesh Lin
4/22/2015
G block English
1: Chapter 1
song: No love, Eminem
“Been through hell and back, I can show you vouchers, I’m rollin sweets, I’m smoking sours”
Description of why song is suitable
Jerry Renault loves sport, and his mom is dead and dad is off to work and does not care about him a lot like what a dad is suppose to do, that is why this song No love shows that he would not be receiving many loves, but he is still persistent to do things. He wants to challenge himself and may not be physically fit to become a good athlete, but mentally stronger than any others. The lyric “Been through hell and back, I can show you vouchers, I’m rollin sweets, I’m smoking sours”. The lyric literally means Jerry has been through the tough time of losing his mom, and his dad constantly “not caring about him”, but those horrible moments are what drove him on. It is adding another layer of mental toughness inside him.
2: Chapter 4
“I’m different, yeah I’m different…”
Bailey, different from any of his classmate, is a good student and a high honor roll student, he dares to be different from his classmates and stand up for himself against a bully, and a secret poilce- like officer Brother Leon, fear enforcer of the school. If he didnt stood up for himself, nobody would help him otherwise they’d be going up against a boss and this song represents bailey, different from some other people of his class. “I’m different” inside this song indicates him as a unique students that actually is one of the few amongst this whole school that has a impressive grade, and a boldness to challenge Brother Leon, though he’s still not as tough as Jerry, he is one of the dudes who will still stand up for his own choice, when necessary.
3:Chapter 7
song:Not afraid
“I’m not afraid… not afraid… to take a stand… everybody…everybody… come take my hand..”
Emile, a character who is hated a lot by a bully who has a lot of power inside school and he is still living alive inside the school and thank goodness not being picked on by Archie yet… Emile is more or less the fearless/Archie characteristic-like student, so its still kind of wierd that Archie hated what Emile is doing but he’s doing it himself. Emile actually hated Archie a lot, both sides hated each other. However, Emile has no fear of Archie even though he is the head of the Vigils, and could really do some dirty things at Emile if he doesn’t show “respect”. “I’m not afraid, to take a stand” indicates that Emile is ready to go against Archie if he does anything bad at him. The fearless and self defense mental toughness helps Emile survive in this school, and become some student that isn’t part of Vigils, but another bully that oppresses other students too.
4: Chapter 10
song:Go hard or go home
“I feel like the sky is falling down.. aint nobody here to play around, push you to the edge or walk back down, cuz its time to hard or go home”
Jerry is a risk taker like player who has the responsibility of making all the play and it seems sports was one of the path he chosen for success. In these couple of practice he goes hard at himself and trying to do the best job so that he can impress coach, in which he did successfully. In this song “ain’t nobody here to play around, push you to the edge or walk back down, cuz its time to go hard or go home” shows Jerry’s competitiveness and his determination to win and his strives to be a better athlete on the football field, and his excellent passes is well enough to prove that he could be a very good quarterback.
5: Chapter 13
song:Its my life-Bon Jovi
“Its my life… it’s now or never, I ain’t gonna live forever”
Jerry can do whatever he wants he doesn’t care about what other thinks he wants to make his own decision and even dare opposes a leader of the school, Brother Leon… This song shows how Jerry is minding his own life by becoming a conformist (a non conformist of Brother Leon). Throughout the story, Jerry constantly ignores Brother Leon’s “volunteering for chocolate sale” as he is telling others “this is my life, and I can decide things I want to do and things I don’t want to do”. “Its my life…” the lyric pretty much shows Jerry’s opinion in terms of conforming or not.
6: Chapter 16-18
song:Guts over fear-Enimem
Jerry continues to resist Brother Leon, and its a proof that Jerry is stubborn about some things and is determined to make his own choices and not be conformed. This is also an act of independence and showing everyone not all of you need to listen, and sometimes trusting your guts is better than trusting fear. “Guts over fear, the time is here, Guts over fear, I shall not tear” pretty much tells about Jerry’s decision, “I made the choice, and I’m not backing down anymore”.
7: Chapter 19-21
As Jerry continues to refuse selling chocolates, many students also started doing so, and believes Jerry has to right idea about not “volunteering” to sell chocolates for school. People now started following Jerry’s idea, and “come with me” is like Jerry asking people to “follow my lead” and join him to not sell the chocolates, Fall from grace “Come with me, Come with me, Yeah,Come with me, Uh-huh, Yeah” pretty much indicates what the students were thinking after Jerry stood up for himself.
8: Chapter 24
song: Imagine Dragons – I Bet My Life
“So I… I bet my life… I bet my life… I bet my life for you”
As more and more students continue to “un-conform but conform” to Jerry’s not selling chocolate idea, this song represents the students perspective. Since Brother Leon and the vigils hold such a huge power and could “destroy” any of the students easily, challenging them is more of a risk than a new idea. Jerry started it, and it maded it clear that he is going against people who held the most power in this school. Other students looked up to him now, showing him more respect, and this song I bet my life pretty much sounds like the students “I bet my life for Jerry’s idea about not selling chocolates”
9: Chapter 25
song: Kanye West-Stronger
As Jerry continues to refuse to sell the chocolate in this story, he made himself clear that no matter what dirty things the vigils do, or Brother Leon tries against him to make sure he changes his mind about going up against them, he made himself clear that he won’t back down, and whatever Brother Leon and the Vigils throw at him, it will only make his will stronger, and he’s not gonna back down an inch. “that that that that don’t kill me, could only makes us stronger” pretty shows Jerry’s idea about “hey you gonna do those dirty actions at me fine, but I’m telling it don’t hurt me none, and I’ma stand tall and strong and never back down”.
10: Chapter 29
song:Billy Joel- Running on Ice
As the story goes on, things goes back to normal. Vigils continues to use its power to enforce selling chocolates and Brother Leon’s terrorization reigns and now Jerry is all by himself. No other classmates like him anymore, the sales are returning to normal, most importantly Jerry attracted deadly attention to himself. The Vigils started doing a series of attacks on him, both on football team, and his hard worked artworks. This song pretty much means it is time, either for Jerry to stop what he’s doing and conform to brother Leon and the Vigils, or just quit this school and find another one…
11: Chapter 34-Simon & Garfunkel- I Am A Rock
As Jerry continues to refuse “volunteering for chocolate sale”, he is the only one left that refused to sell it. As he continues it, people actually started disliking him, either it was because the Vigils and Brother Leon “brainwashed” those students, or its just because everyone else is doing it and he’s not which is normal for common sense that he’s wierd, don’t go close to him. As everyone ignored Jerry, he started to feel free, he enjoyed his absence of identity,where no one bothered him. It’s pretty similar to the part of the song where it mentions I am an island which implies wanting to be isolated.
12: Chapter 37-The Beatles – With A Little Help From My Friends
As Jerry enters the fight against Emile, he finds himself physically outmatched and gets beated up by Emile badly. However, while on the stage Jerry is getting wrecked, a few of his friend, including Goubert, came and watched him and cheers him on (I think he’s the only person cheering for Jerry). This is a kind of a small help from a friend, and it shows a strong bond of friendship between Goubert and Jerry. Even though Goubert could do nothing about Jerry getting wrecked on the stage, he continues to cheer Jerry on and it tells Jerry when he hears this that “hey, your going through this, I’m right by you alright? Stay alive and fight on lets go man!!”
My Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qaM_BSpO2k&list=PL0K9vKuIOooUFEIoigyEMF0v-cEfk1-a0&index=1
Song Comparison TIEA:
In the story The Chocolate War, there is similar song called “NOT AFRAID” by Enimem, that portraits Jerry Renault’s characteristic of a stubborn, courageous, and never quitting attitude.
In the lyrics “I’m not afraid, to take a stand” which implies that Jerry is not afraid of Brother Leon, and the Vigils that literally controlled the entire school by spreading fear into every student. Especially during the time where after he completed the “assignment” sent by the vigils, he was supposed to start selling it, however he didn’t and continues on to say “no” to Brother Leon’s “volunteer” for chocolate sale to save school from financial failure”.
Jerry was the only student who refused the chocolate sales, and even though the Vigil’s 10 day “assignment” for him was already done and Brother Leon also knows that he has this assignment to do, he is still stubborn and refuses to sell chocolate. After the assignment he is not conforming and is standing up for himself. He is stubborn, and he said that clearly in one of his quote in chapter 26: “I’m Jerry Renault and I’m not selling chocolates” and what he said in pg 73: “I don’t want to” that pretty much summed up the rest of the story.
Jerry eventually got himself beated up a lot of times because he’s trying to go against Brother Leon and the Vigils, the never backing down attitude he has eventually lead to him getting himself sent to the hospital, but with these quotes said by him it emphasizes the determination and the persistence characteristic of him trying not to conform and not forced to do something he doesn’t want to do.
Book TIEA:
In the story The Chocolate War the author organizes the text into a structure that could let us think about if you should be a non conformist or not. Being a non conformist could be a good thing, and a bad thing at the same time. While it is sometimes a act of proving your different perspective and your idea, your difference amongst others will erupt certain type of hatred towards you, sometimes even involves bullying.
Using the character Jerry Renault as an effective example, he is a non conformist of Brother Leon and the Vigils because he is standing up for his own ideas and refused to “volunteer” chocolate sale inside the book because he just doesn’t like the idea of being forced to sell it, knowing it must be more than just selling chocolates behind the scenes. At that time, Brother Leon insisted everyone contribute to raise enough money so that school could continue to function, and that everyone was expected to sell 50 boxes of chocolates.
Within this story Jerry initially came up with the idea of “refusing to sell chocolates” coming from the Vigil’s “assignment”. His initial purpose was to not sell any chocolate boxes in 10 days and see what result it will bring amongst other students. What turns out to be a simple, easy 10 day job turns out to be something that would change Jerry Renault’s life in school. After 10 days he seemed to realize it was actually great to refuse “volunteering” for chocolate sale and he continued on refusing it. On page 50, day 11, he said “no”, refusing to the sell chocolates even after the assignment.
Initially many students thought it was alright too since Jerry was doing it, and they followed him in. What happens next turns out to be a all out war between sides conforming to Brother Leon and Vigils, and sides “non conforming to Vigils and Brother Leon but conforming to Jerry”. First everything was good, people respected Jerry, treats him like a new leader of a new idea. However, on page 78 Obie showed the Vigils the problem regarding to why Jerry has so many followers and why so many students are refusing the chocolate sale now, a poster saying “screw the Vigils and screw the chocolates”.
The Vigils and Brother Leon strikes back by doing inappropriate actions to force Jerry to stop.Commiting actions such as bullying, destroying Jerry’s project, kicking him intentionally while playing sport,making him look like a foolish quarterback on the football field by not catching his passes, isolating him from the rest of the world and a real beating by Emile and couple other gangsters that almost took his last breath away. This seemed to set an example to other students, after these incidents, the amount of supporters helping Jerry decreased drastically and Jerry just seemed all by himself again, and suffering from extremism commited by Vigils and Brother Leon.
At the end Jerry still lost the conforming battle and the Vigils and Brother Leon of course, with their power inside school, still prevailed and things go normal as the day ended. Jerry was sent to the hospital after being badly beaten in a raffle/unfair fight going up against Emile. It shows the good and bad side of things inside conforming. While being non conformist is a good thing, thinking outside the box yourself might cause you unneeded risk of putting yourself in danger, and at risk of getting hated by much more classmates. It is good, but if you cross the line at some point of being a nonconformist, what happens next might not guarantee your safety at school, especially if you’re going up against someone holding a lot of power in school.
My story on disturbing the universe, bullying prevention and conformity, because this story is private and I was unable to change it in the settings, please click on each link and read the chapter one by one 🙂