Robert Cormier is not afraid to test out what kids, or adults for that matter, can or can not handle in his novels. There are a lot of mature themes that occur in his books, yet many have argued that if you talk to a teenager like an adult, then they will act like one. One theme that seemed to appear in The Chocolate War, I am the Cheese, and The Rag & the Bone Shop was, "What happens when good people stand by and do nothing?" In The Chocolate War, Cormier uses the character Goober to express this theme. Goober was Jerry's closest thing to a friend at school, yet when times got tough he was no where to be found. It's not that he didn't want to help, but instead that he couldn't risk becoming an outcast and having the cool kids against him too. Goober did not have the guts to stick up against the "corrupt" popular group.
Lastly, Cormier's characters seem to truly be alone in the novels. Jerry is not close with his father, and has difficulty communicating with him ever since his mother died from cancer. Jerry is left without a person to go to for advice. Cormier definitely does not sugar coat his endings, and directs his novels toward the common theme of "harsh reality."
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