The Chocolate War (Pgs. 102 to 149)

Summary:

Chapter fifteen starts out with some dialect between Archie and Emile about a picture that, unknown to Emile, does not exist. Archie had been using the non-existing picture of a seemingly ridiculous situation to blackmail Janza. Brother Leon and Caroni are discussing Caroni's F when Brother Leon calls Caroni by his first name—David. It was unsual to see Brother Leon call him 'David,' as he seldom referred to any of his students by their first names, or else, in so doing he would be crossing the 'invisible line between teacher and student.' Ultimately, Brother Leon and Caroni end up talking about the chocolate sales and Leon demands to know why Jerry had not been selling chocolates. Caroni informs Leon that Jerry was doing it in behalf of the vigils and that he was protesting it for 10 more day, of which the tenth day happened to be the following day. Brother Leon hoped that Jerry would pick up on selling chocolates on the eleventh day, but apparantly, Jerry had different plans. Jerry decided to not sell chocolated after serving the 10-day term assigned by The Vigils because it had become personal to him.

Quote:

"There is an invisible line between teacher and student, he [Brother Leon] always said, and it must not be crossed" (Cormier 108).

Reaction:

I believe that this quote is true, however, I do not think that Leon is flexible enough with this standard. Although he was referring to Caroni by his first name that time, he was doing it for the purpose of giving Caroni false hope, or to toy with his mind. I can draw a distinction from this quote—we BPS kids NEVER call our teachers by their first names. While I can live with this form of respect and formality, I believe that having more intimate relationships with teachers is in everyone's best interest. If calling someone by their first name increases intimacy, ultimately, this quote led me to think why children don't call their parents by their first names; there is certainly a contradiction here.