Robert Cormier was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. He is widely known for his strong and disturbing novels for young adult readers. The name “Cormier” brings up descriptions of violent acts. But, Robert Cormier has a positive view on children’s literature. Robert has four famous books which are: The Chocolate War, I am the Cheese, After the First Death and Beyond the Chocolate War. In his novel The Chocolate War, Cormier makes the point that an excess of power inevitably leads to corruption. Robert Cormier was born on January 17, 1925, in Leominster, Massachusetts, and had lived in Leominster for most of his life. Robert’s father was Lucien Joseph and his mother was Irma Margaret. Robert Cormier was just the second out of eight kids his…show more content… Robert’s mother was Irish, so the Cormier children spoke English at home not like most children in the neighborhood that spoke French. Cormier loved to write since he was young. Cormier started to write when he was in the first grade. As a kid, Robert Cormier liked to stay home and read books. Robert knew that he wanted to be a writer when he was in the 7th grade. Robert was not good at sports as a kid but was great reader. He read a lot at home and was usually the happiest there. At the end of his eight grade year, Robert witnessed something terrible. Robert witnessed his house burning with his mother and his sister inside. Luckily, Robert’s mother and his sister made it safe. But it took Cormier many years to get over his anger of this event. High school was a success for Robert as he was the president of his senior class at Leominster High School. Robert attend Fitchburg State College where he was also the president of his senior class. When Robert was a freshman in college, his teacher sent…show more content… There are a lot of forms of power in this novel by Cormier. Cormier shows an excess of power that the vigils have. The vigils had power over many people including Jerry Renault, Brother Leon and the school. The vigils took advantage of the people to make then do things the Vigil organization wanted them to do. Every year, Trinity school has a tradition of doing a chocolate sale for a fundraiser. This tradition had been going on for years. Brother Leon also has an excess of power. Brother Leon made everyone at Trinity to sell double what they sold last year and if you did not, you would get a bad report. But the Vigil organizational had given Jerry Renault an assignment. An assignment that was given to you by the Vigil organization had to be completed. If you would not accept or complete the assignment, the Vigils would hurt you or send someone else to hurt you. The assignment was not to accept the chocolates from Brother Leon and not participate in the chocolate sale. This assignment made Brother Leon very angry. So later, the Vigil organization had given Jerry Renault a new assignment. The new assignment was to take the chocolates that Brother Leon would give him and participate in the chocolate sale. But Jerry did not want to take any more orders or assignments from the Vigils and still did not accept the chocolates from Brother Leon. Since the Vigil