Reading Response

          Blog Post #5

Book: Killing Mr. Griffin 
Author: Lois Duncan 

    In the book, Killing Mr. Griffin, it centers around 5 high school kids, Mark, David, Jeff, Betsy & Susan. One day, Mark hatches a plan to kill their English teacher Mr. Griffin, because he is tired of his teaching ways. So, he gathers the 4 people who wouldn't ever be suspected and they kidnap Mr. Griffin and leave him at an abanded area near a highway to scare him. They forget to get him and they find him dead 7 hours later. While I was reading something was telling me that they (Mark) didn't leave him there and forget to pick him up by accident. And I have proof about this opinion.
    At the beginning of the book when Mark was planning the kidnapping, the way he was talking when he said "Well, why don't we then" after Jeff mumbled "Mr. Griffin is the sort of guy you'd like to kill" at first made me think he was joking but as the conversation goes on I learn that he wasn't playing. As the reader, I noticed how the author always slips information one by one, and the author earlier mentioned that Mr. Griffin failed Mark last semester due to cheating and humiliated him in front of class. And later, while everybody went their separate ways after leaving him at the same location without any food or water and had ropes tied around his hand.Also, I felt Mark left him on purpose because who forgets to revisit a person who you tortured and left sitting in the same spot with no outside contact for hours and hours. It's just revenge from all that rage and hatred for Mr. Griffin.
    Another reason why I think Mark left him on purpose is because of the revenge he wanted to get on Mr. Griffin. He knew he was going to purposely kill him so he hatched the "after plan" which was the plan to give alibis for everyone and get rid of all the evidence. Also I noticed, that everyone relies on him when it comes to plans but, I would have never thought of a brilliant plan right off the bat in a sticky situation, unless I knew what would happen then I would hatch a plan to avoid the determined aftermath before any of this happened *cough* *cough*.
    At the end of the book, it was plain and obvious that Mark knew this would happen to Mr. Griffin and if he had help from his accomplices to the dirty work he would get his sweet, revenge. It also depicts peer pressure, it shows how everyone went with Mark's plan even though they knew it was a horrible idea. And, to add, this also shows that Mark had developed the traits of a sociopath and didn't care if Mr. Griffin died or not but he just wanted revenge.