RATIONALE

The teacher’s dead is a novel written by Benjamin Zephaniah. It begins with the death of a
teacher, describing how the knife penetrates his stomach. Three main characters are
mentioned, Jackson, who will become a little detective, Lionel the murderer and Ramzi the
accomplice.
In this written task, my purpose is to make known all the psychopathic thoughts and traumas
that Lionel had; describing each to see whether they influenced the assassination of Professor
Joseph. This issue will be related to some cases of deaths in schools of the European
community, the country where there is more killing of teachers by students.
I decided to make a report where the audience will be people who are interested in knowing
something more about those mentally disturbed that affect the thoughts. Concerning the tone,
it’ll be a serious tone because is the main feature of a report. In my report I will describe and
enumerate the actions that Lionel had both at home and in some parts of the work, as well as
those actions that he saw and that seemed normal to him; and to finish I will give a conclusion
to see if these things that he did and saw had something to do with his teacher’s killing, or he
just killed him because he was very scared.

Words: 219
TASK
Lionel case: did a child kill a teacher out of fear, or is there something they're hiding from us?
A. After the death of Mr. Joseph; Jackson, the little detective, issue a report in which he
announces that Lionel killed the professor with a knife out of fear; he also explains where he
gets the knife and that the whole death was a misunderstanding.
B. Jackson concludes that there was a group of children where Lionel lives that bothered him
a lot and that’s why Lionel was scared.
C. Jackson also adds that that day, before Lionel went to school, he had had an encounter
with that group of children, and they were all struggling because they were threatening each
other with a knife.
D. Finally, Jackson ends saying that Lionel had removed the knife with which they wanted to
harm him and that when Professor Joseph approached him to ask what he had, he confused
him with Terry and stabbed him with the knife.
E. However, this report does not annex some things and attitudes that Lionel had had since
Jackson began his investigation.
F. These attitudes are related for example with traumas that he had, and so much was some
traumas that Lionel had already assimilated them. Moreover, for him it was something normal
when it happened; an example of these traumas is the case when his father hit his wife, and
Lionel the only thing he did was to see how they hit his mother. There's even a part where
Mrs. Ferrier tells Jackson that she was on the verge of death and if it wasn't for a neighbor
she'd be dead.
G. Another case was the psychopathic attitudes that Lionel had: such as when he had fun
cutting the tail of some cats or when he yelled at his mother Mrs. Ferrier, it is even mentioned
in the book that Lionel treated her like a servant to her mother. And the question is who in his
right mind as a person and as a son would treat his mother like a servant?
H. Some researches mention that psychopaths tend to show attitudes of possession about
other people, besides that they behaved as if they didn't care about anything and even
recognized scientists mention that some people with mental problems the so-called
psychopaths don't get to have feelings. These attitudes mentioned even by psychologists are
evident in Lionel where there is no doubt that he was physically capable, but inside he was
corroded.
I. I conclude we must emphasize that the fault is not only the little Lionel but also his parents,
because not even his mother had the courage to ask for help when his son had that behavior.
We can even say that little detective Jackson was to blame because he was not able to provide
help in time or help him as a friend to say in court what happened. At this point, we add that
because of not declaring things as they happened in themselves, Lionel and his accomplice
Ramzi suffered a penalty as severe as if they were real killers.
J. The past is already done, but we can change the future ourselves. However, there will be
times when we will need help; even more, if we have psychological traumas, pathological
problems or mental disorders, in these points those beings who want will help us.

Words: 564
REFERENCE:
Zephaniah, B. (2011). Teacher’s Dead. London, United Kingdom. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc