Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War

The challenging or banning of books is a violation of a person’s constitutional rights. Futhermore, when a book is challenged or banned, that means that someone feels that the writing inside is not suitable for the youth of America to read. Although, some people feel as if this violates their First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Thomas McAffee states in his article "Board of Education of Island Trees School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982)” that, “the removal of books from public school libraries violates the First Amendment if the school officials intended to deny students access to, ideas with which the authorities disagreed.” The act of banning books was to protect the children of these schools. However, it is only …show more content…
The book was intended for a mature audience, but was based off of his son who had refused to sell chocolates. The book was a sensation. Conseqeutnly, he shattered the formula for young adult fiction with a new outlook on life. Unlike most books that came before it, this one didn’t have a happy ending. Although, Elaine Woo states about the book, “Its language and sexual content also made it a top target of school and library censors. The Chocolate War" is No. 4 on the American Library Assn.'s list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of the past decade.” Futhermore, this book was raw and open about some of the darker things in life. This fascinated some, but also drove the others away, which led to its frequent challenging. Another thing that led to the challenging, was the book’s maturity level. Ron Titus mentions that in 2010 the book was challenged or banned for, “nudity, offensive language, being sexually explicit and unsuited for this age group.” The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a book that pushed the envelope on what the world thought normal young adult fiction …show more content…
It only takes one person to start the ball rolling to ban a book. In the case of The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, the book should not be banned for high school students. High school students have the maturity to look past the controversial language and look into the important message the book has to give. Truly, younger students such as middle school or elementary school children should not be able to simply because it is above their intelligence level and they won’t be able to fully understand the message. Also, high school students have experienced most of the things that have happened in this book. Anyone who doesn’t think that these things happen in schools are turning a blind eye to the situation. Futhermore, there are valuable messages that can be learned from this book that will be nonexistent if this book is banned in high school

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