Shoot The Teacher Essay, Research Paper

SHOOT THE TEACHER

By: David Belbin

During the couple of days that pass in this book, lots of

things happen. A boy in his mid teens becomes to heavy a

burden for his mother to carry. She kicks him out. Her

divorced husband gets to take care of Adam. Adam and his

father, who Adam calles Simon, move to a new place with a

new school where Simon is a teacher. The very first day

they’re involved in a shooting. But there is more to come!

Three people are shot and killed in only a few days. There

are many theories of hwo comitted the killings. Simon is the

main suspect, however he’s found innocent. Instead the find

that the murderer is Adam’s only friend Naomi, who was the

stepdaughter of the first victim.

Adam is in the beginning of the book a rebellious young

man. The typical teenager in revolt. He’s growing his hair

long, refusing to go to school and talking back to his

mother. He seemes to calm down quite a bit though in just a

few days. As a matter of fact, as soon they arrive at the new

school, Adam seemes to be more mature and calm. Maybe

that’s because he doesn’t have any friends in the new school,

maybe because he feels inferior being the new kid and

outsider that he is.

Adam’s relationship to his father seemes to vary a lot. At

first Adam looks at his father as if he was a perfect

stranger.And he has all rights to do that since they practicly

hadn’t seen each other att all since Adam was born. Then

some kind of a father-son friendship evolves, but I get the

feeling that it’s only because they feel they have to. When

Simon is accused of murder, Adam starts to hate him.

Perhaps stop caring about it, is a better way of describing

Adam’s feelings towards his dad.

The author used a technique with many enviromental

descriptions. He didn’t use a lot of fancy words, probably

because it is a youth book. I am amazed by the number of

times the author used the verb shrug. At least once every

other page. The plot is well written so that you can’t tell

who the murderer is until the very last page, or at least the

last chapter.

I usually don’t like this kind of books. Actually I don’t like

books at all. I enyojed this one though. Once I got started

reading it, I could hardly put it down.