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Summary
The final chapter's of the book is when all the lose ends are tied. The chocolate sale is over and Brother Leon is as happy as can be. But there are 50 boxes left of chocolates, the 50 that belongs to Jerry. Brother Leon knows it and he tries to make Jerry explain why he hasn't been selling his chocolates and the only reply that Jerry could come up with was that it was voluntary and he chose not to. The Goober is sitting in the back of the room wishing that Jerry would give in a little. When he goes to the auditorium to hear the roll call, his name is called with the number 50 soon after. Goober knew that there was a mistake because he had stopped selling the boxes a long time ahgo but he didn't have the guts to go up and say something. But he didn't feel like he needed to because he had stopped caring a long time back. Walking down the hallway Jerry heard a familiar voice, Janza's voice, the school bully. JAnza started taunting Jerry wishing that he would throw the first punch, so he started calling him queer untill Jerry gave in. With one signal, Janza called his other boys who were hidding and an a secong Jerry was on the floor half beaten to death. After that evening the phone kept on ringing non-stop and jerry soon became annoyed. Then there came one call that would but an end to all this madness. Archie, being the brilliant mastermind that he is, came up with the idea to raffel off those last 50 chocolates by putting on a boxing show with Jerry and Janza. Archie called Jerry explainging to him that this would be the perfect oppertunity to get back at Janza. But what he failed to explain was that the students in the crowd would be calling out the punches. So, Jerry accepted without really knowing what he was getting himseld into. On the field Archie had one more buisness to take care of, "the black box". He had to draw out 3 white marbles and if he drew a black one then he would be the one that would be going up against Janza. But, Archie beat faith once again and drew 3 white marbles guranteeing him safety. The fighting began and Janza was getting all the punches on Jerry. Janza soon went out of control and started hitting Jerry out of anger. Jerry soon became un-concious. The fighting only stopped when Brother Jacques came and closed the stadium lights. Archie got caught but only to be saved from trouble by Brother Leon who was watching the whole time. Jerry finally woke up by hearing Goobers voice who was there the whole time. Not being able to speak Jerry wanted so badly to tell Goob that he should never disturb the universe because it's not worth it. The book finally with Archie and Obie sitting in the dark in the stadium where they first seen Jerry.Quote
"They tell you to do your thing but they don't mean it. They don't want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be thier thing, too. It's a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don't disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say... Just remember what I told you. It's important. Otherwise, they murder you" (Cormier 259). Reaction
In my opinion Jerry gave Goober good advice. Everybody is always telling you to be who you want to be and do your own thing no matter what other people think but often time you don't even have a choice, it's either choice A or choice A. Even though they tell you to do you own thing, that always mean that you better pick right or you'll pay for it. In the case of Jerry he didn't really have a choice, and if he did he picked the wrong one. Everyday Jerry kept pondering about the question on his poster "Do I Dare Disturb the Universe" and that day on the field he came up with the answer. The rules of the universe are not suppose to be changed and you dont want to be the one who does change it. According to Jerry, if you change it, there will be a price to pay.
Summary
Goober wants to quite the football team because he feels guilty about what happened to Brother Eugene and room Nine-teen. Jerry feels like Goob is being unrealistic is is thinking too much into what he did. He tries to calm him down but nothing seems be working, so he decides to give the Goob HIS therapy, running. While running Goob seemed to open up and he told Jerry that there was something rotten in the school that got the name Vigils written all over it. Jerry still tries to persuade Goober but he fails as Goober stands his ground and makes the decision that he wont give anything more to Trinity. Now Brother Leon thinks that it's all Archie's fault that the sale is going lousy and not the way he planned. Archie had promised Brother Leon that he would make sure that the chocolate sale goes smoothly and now it's up to him to get the sales up. Before the meeting with Brother Leon, Archie had an encounter with Brian. Archie gained a piece of information that will help him blackmail Brother Leon. He found out that Brother Leon had bought the chocolates with the money he wasn't suppose to and now he was in debt and needed the money to pay back the school. Now, Brother Leon threatened Archie saying that if the chocolate sale goes down the drain so will the Vigils. Out on the field Jerry gets his share of not selling the chocolates. Someone was out to get him by making him fall and drop his passes. He figured that the Vigils were out to get him. Now Jerry is being followed and getting mysterious phone calls in the middle of the night. People are stealing his projects, messing up his locker and his sneakers, and pushing him down the stairs. He had become invisible, people giving him the silent treatment, and for a moment he actually liked it. The chocolate sale is going good all they need is 5 thousand more, minus Jerry's quota.Quote
"It's more than fun and games, Jerry. Anything that can make you cry and send a teacher away-tip him over the borderline- that's more than just fun and games" (Cormier 160).Reaction
After the Goob and Jerry stopped running they started talking about the real reason why Goober was going to quite the football team and stop doing things for Trinity. The Goober said that the Vigils are making the school evil and pushing things too far. Jerry makes the comment that they are just having fun and that the whole thing is a game but that makes the Goob mad and he tells Jerry that anything that can make a teacher go crazy, referring to Brother Eugene, is going to far and it's more than just fun and games. I think that we can all relate to why the Goober got mad because surely having fun and playing games doesn't involve ticking off a teacher and making someone feel guilty. Goob is seeing the serious part about this whole thing and I think that Jerry does know the seriousness about it but he chooses not to think of it that way or else he would become just like the Goob, depressed.
Summary
Archie. The kid you don't want to mess with, but he was also best known for pulling of the best pranks and assignments. As Emile approached him about "the picture", Archie put on a smile knowing what Emile wanted. See, Archie had walked in on Emile doing his business and pretended to have taken a picture of it. Archie knows that he's lying but Emile doesn't and he wants to keep it that way. Now Caroni, member of the Vigils, was in Brother Leon's room talking about the F he received on his paper. Brother Leon at first tried to act worried and telling Caroni how teachers make mistake's on grading papers and so on. To Caroni everything sounded normal until Brother Leon mentioned Jerry's name. As soon as he did Caroni knew what Brother Leon. Brother Leon wanted Caroni to make Jerry start selling chocolates again and so Caroni told him that the Vigils had given him an assignment saying that he can't sell chocolates for ten days but he should be starting soon. Caroni became filled with disgust knowing the Brother Leon was blackmailing him and if he wanted that F to change he better do as he said. Brother Leon's face quickly filled with joy amused with his game. When the ten days were finally over Jerry surprised everyone by saying that he wasn't going to sell any chocolates. Brother Leon quickly became upset and looked down. Finally Jerry starts to question why he said "No" even though the assignment was over. Now the other kids had began to question why THEY was selling chocolates, they started wondering why THEY couldn't say "No" to Brother Leon. So Obie decides to tell Archie that this whole thing still has Vigils written all over it and if he doesn't make Jerry start selling again everything will go down hill. Brother Leon finally came to a conclusion that the school was being infected by Jerry's disease and the only way to cure it was to get to the center of the problem, which in this case was Jerry.Quote
"And now along comes a freshman. A child. He says no. He says 'I'm not going to sell the chocolates.' Simple. Beautiful. Something I never thought of before-just stop selling them" (Cormier 142).Reaction
The quote shows how Jerry is beginning to influence the boys at Trinity one by one. Everyone going crazy trying to sell their chocolates but unable to find any buyers. The boys start talking and start realizing that if Jerry could face Brother Leon and say no, they can to. I think this shows how people could influence others. If someone does something than it's only fare that the other person can to. It's really common in high school, almost like a"disease", as Brother Leon put it. If something gets started sooner or later it's going to spread around and everyone will get influenced by it.
Summary
The Goober finally got his assignment, and that momment arrived quicker than the speed of light. Almost like as if he was sleep walking, he found himself on the floor of Brother Eugene's homeroom, terrified with damp cheeks from crying. His assignment from the Vigils was to insrew every chair and desk to where it would almost be falling apart so that in the morning Brother Eugene got a little surprise. As the hours passed and the Goober became exhausted, he finally recieved help from a couple of unknown boys wearing masks. In the morning the homeroom got distroyed quicker then ever, it started with one touch of a desk then CRASH the whole class looked as if it was under construction. Realizing what he did, the Goober quickly became depressed. Jerry began thinking back on his mother's life and passing and how wonderful life had been untill his mother died. The day she died he described himself not feeling sad but feeling angry and wanted to blame someone for the death. Now Jerry looks at his living father, who looks like the walking dead because he just goes to work come home, nap and start of the whole routine again. Jerry begins to wonder if his life would be feeled with meaningless hours that he would just sleep away, the thought became to much to think about so he quickly pushed it away and football took it's place. Now at the Chapel, Brother Leon kept going on and on about the chocolate sale and how important this was to Trinity especially now that the whole thing was doubled from last year. Archie couldn't keep but thinking if he was going in too much about the whole ordeal. On the football feild your only as good as your next pass or play. Jerry, along with the junior football players, where playing against the Varsity football players and things weren't looking good. The coach was getting upset knowing that the junior football could do better. With on pass and a lucky escape from a tackle, Jerry gave the juniors their frist touch down against the Varsity. The coach quickly bacame gleeful and with a little "son of a bitch", Jerry knew that the coach had accepted him as a player. Jerry's happiness would only last a few minutes untill he got to his locker, and as he approached he saw a note. "Summons of the Vigils: Assignment" and with that started the most un-curerable disease in Trinity history. Back at the Chapel, Brother Leon was handing off chocolates. Everyone awaited thier names to be called and when it was called it should be followed with an respectful "Yes", meaning that you will sell the chocolates. As the Goober got his chocolates, Jerry's name was called. But something happened, unlike all the other yesses Jerry responded with a "No" and got everyone's attention. Brother Leon's face became red and stiff not knowing what was going on but only Jerry knew what he was doing. Over the next couple days Brother Leon would stand in the middle of the class and called out names. It was simple, he would say your name and you would call out the number of boxes of chocolates you sold. Everyone did as they suppose to but Jerry always continued with the same answer, "No" leaving the class, the teacher, and the reader confused about what he was thinking.
Quote
"...he could see his father's face reflected in his own features. He turned away. He didn't want to be a mirror of his father. The thought made him cringe. I want to do something, be somebody. But what? But what?" (Cormier 65-66)
Reaction
The quote above was taken from when Jerry was thinking about how his mother's face would fit on his father's face. As Jerry was looking in the mirror he saw his father's reflection on his own face, he quickly turned away because he didn't want to be anything like his father. The reason for that was that after his mother died it was like his father didn't live anymore. I think that Jerry should've been a little more concederate about his father because after all he did lose a wife and for some people that would leave nothing else to live for. But I also know where Jerry is coming from, we all want to be something and be somebody in life but sometimes it's that "What should I be?" question that throws us off. Jerry didn't want to sit around the house go to work, do nothing, then come back home. He wanted his life to have meaning. Alot of kids turn to their father, or parents, career to decide what they want to do but for Jerry if he was going to be somebody he had to look away from his father.
