The Battle of Jericho by Sharon M. Draper

First published: 2003

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of work: Early twenty-first century

Locale: Cincinnati, Ohio

Principal Characters:

• Jericho Prescott, a trumpet player who is invited to pledge the Warriors of Distinction, an exclusive high school club
• Joshua Prescott, Jericho’s cousin and best friend, who also pledges the Warriors of Distinction
• Dana Wolfe, the only female pledge, who snuck into the Warriors of Distinction to prove that girls should be allowed to participate
• Arielle Gresham, Jericho’s new girlfriend, who loves the idea that he will be a Warrior of Distinction
• Rick Sharp, a fellow student and the pledge master of the Warriors of Distinction
• Eddie Mahoney, a senior Warrior of Distinction, who has it in for Dana during pledge week
• Mr. Boston, Jericho’s math teacher, who encourages him to report the club’s hazing practices
• Kofi Freeman, Jericho’s friend and fellow pledge
• Cedric Prescott, Jericho’s father, a police officer who never pledged the Warriors of Distinction in high school
• Brock Prescott, Joshua’s father and a former Warrior of Distinction
• Mr. Tambori, Jericho’s music teacher

The Novel

When Jericho Prescott and his friends are invited to join a prestigious school club, they are thrilled and honored, but what should be harmless fun quickly turns sinister. Jericho, Joshua, and Kofi are among fifteen high school boys invited to join an exclusive club called the Warriors of Distinction. The boys are eager to get involved, because club membership comes with popularity and privileges. First, the boys are asked to help with a holiday toy drive for children. The drive goes well, but shortly afterward, they each receive an ominous phone call inviting them to meet the Warriors at a warehouse at midnight.

Jericho decides to sneak out of the house to participate. From that point on, Jericho finds himself in morally ambiguous territory. He wants to be a Warrior, but he feels that some of the group’s activities are questionable. The pledges gather at midnight to take an oath of secrecy. One girl, Dana, secretly infiltrates the group, causing an uproar. The Warriors decide to let her continue pledging, because she has already witnessed too many of the club’s inner secrets, but the elder Warriors warn her that the road will not be easy. Eddie makes it his mission to humiliate Dana, hoping she will quit.

Pledge week begins. The pledges are made to wear matching shirts, run in circles, steal, and perform degrading tasks, such as eating earthworms and climbing into a filthy Dumpster. They are called “pledge slime,” beaten, threatened, and made to suck the toes of the older Warriors. They are expected to give up all other activities and be loyal to the club. Jericho, an accomplished trumpet player, even forsakes an opportunity to perform for a Juilliard professor in order to be with the Warriors.

On the last night of pledge week, the Warriors give the pledges alcohol. They lead them upstairs to make the “Leap of Faith,” jumping out a second-story window onto a pallet of mattresses and mud on the ground. The alcohol dulls their inhibitions, so despite being frightened, all the pledges jump. Joshua is the last to leap. He falls headfirst, striking his head on a rock at the edge of the soft landing spot. An ambulance comes, but it is too late. Joshua dies. The students, parents, and community are shocked to learn what the Warriors of Distinction asked their pledges to do. They are just as appalled that the pledges agreed to go through with all the hazing activities and to keep their vow of secrecy.

The Characters

Characters in The Battle of Jericho run the gamut from kind and well-intentioned to deliberately cruel and dangerous. The challenge for the central character, Jericho, is to determine the boundary between those two extremes. Jericho and his peers believe the Warriors of Distinction is a club that focuses on service projects and brotherhood. As they begin the pledge process, however, the seemingly good-natured fun of pledge week quickly enters a morally gray area. Jericho, Josh, Kofi, and Dana must ask themselves how badly they want to be part of the group—and whether the cost of membership is worth paying.

Readers experience Jericho’s struggle with these questions. As the severity of the pledge week exercises increases, Jericho’s anxiety increases, but he silently goes along with everything he is asked to do. Through Jericho, the story explores the difficulty of trusting one’s personal judgment in the face of perceived power. The Warriors are merely other schoolkids, yet Jericho cannot bring himself to challenge them. He feels nervous, ashamed, and guilty over not stopping Eddie’s abuse of Dana, not standing up for himself when he is being degraded, wanting to join a group that would not consider including his disabled friend, and so on. His struggles with these feelings, however, do not prevent him from following the Warriors’ instructions. He fears losing his girlfriend and becoming an outcast if he walks away from the Warriors. Through peer pressure, Jericho is driven to feel that membership in the club is the most important single thing he will ever have the chance to gain—and that to lose it would destroy his life.

To the extent that the story has a villain, it is Eddie. Eddie has it in for Dana, and he exercises power over her in ways that are deliberately harsh and often sexist. He is motivated by deep anger and a difficult home life, but his actions are never significantly challenged by the other, more conscientious Warriors or by any of the pledges. Jericho feels helpless to stop Eddie’s abuse, not recognizing his own power in the situation.

Adults play diverse roles in the novel as well. Brock is a proud alumnus of the Warriors, and he encourages the children to join, as do the club’s faculty advisors. Cedric and Mr. Tambori are more neutral observers, though both encourage Jericho to value his future over membership in the club. They try to talk him into attending the trumpet competition where he would perform for a Juilliard professor. Mr. Boston challenges the premise that the Warriors’ behavior is appropriate. Jericho hears the math teacher’s opinions, but he does not absorb them until it is too late. Mr. Boston’s comments heighten dramatic tension by educating readers about the danger of hazing.

Critical Context

Sharon M. Draper has said that the idea for The Battle of Jericho came from a young reader she met who asked her to write about the challenges of peer pressure. The author took that seed of an idea and solicited feedback from other students, who agreed that many teens will go to extreme lengths to fit in. Thus, The Battle of Jericho emerged as a book that speaks to real issues dealt with by real students in schools across the United States. The novel was critically acclaimed by School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. The Battle of Jericho also received a 2004 Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award.

Bibliography

Bishop, Rudine Simms. Free Within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children’s Literature. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. History and analysis of the evolution of African American writing for children and young adults; covers developments from the oral culture of slave narratives through contemporary African American writers for young audiences, including Draper.

Draper, Sharon M. November Blues. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. The companion novel to The Battle of Jericho; in the wake of the pledge stunt tragedy, Jericho, November, and their friends and family struggle to deal with Joshua’s death.

Ralston, Jennifer. “Anger Management and Violence in Society.” School Library Journal, October 1, 2003. Discusses prevalence of anger issues and violence among youth and suggests that books touching on these topics can help young people deal with them; discusses The Battle of Jericho as one example.