The Chocolate War: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Jerry’s mother died in the spring after a long battle with cancer. Her death left Jerry feeling a confusing blend of emotions—he was surprised by how angry he felt, and surprised even further to find that his anger left no room for sorrow. In the weeks after his mother’s funeral, Jerry and his father rarely spoke; Jerry’s father moved through their house “like a sleepwalker” and Jerry felt alone and abandoned. Apart from one tearful moment of connection right after the funeral, Jerry and his father never discussed their loss, and quickly settled back into their routines.

Jerry comes home from school to find his father napping on the sofa in the den of their new apartment. Jerry’s father is a pharmacist, and often works odd hours and night shifts, leaving him tired at strange times of day. Jerry’s father senses his son’s presence and wakes up, asking Jerry how his day was. Jerry tells his father about football practice, and then asks his father how his day was. Jerry’s father answers only that his day was “fine.”

Jerry, perturbed that every day when he asks his father how his day was his father only answers with “fine,” attempts to dig deeper. He asks his father if there are ever wonderful days or terrible days, and his father answers that his life at the drugstore is “pretty much the same all the time.” Jerry is disappointed to hear this, and when he thinks of his own life turning into an endless succession of days that are just “fine,” he becomes upset. Jerry’s father gets up and starts preparing dinner. Jerry wants to talk to his father more about what it means to live a life, and what the point of it all is, but is afraid of sounding “crazy.”

That night, as Jerry gets ready for bed, he looks at himself in the mirror, seeing himself for the first time as the hippie in the Common saw him: “Square Boy.” Jerry wants to “do something” and “be somebody,” but doesn’t know what he wants to do or who he wants to be.