Killing Mr. Griffin

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1978

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapters 15-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary

Dave brings his grandmother a bowl of green Jell-O that he made especially for her before he went to school. He has drugged the Jell-O, and his grandmother soon falls asleep.

Betsy calls her mother to say she and her friends are going to play some records and asks if they can have some of the cake her mother made. Betsy cuts three pieces of chocolate cake and takes a bite from each slice using three different forks. After smearing icing on the plates, Betsy shoves the slices down the garbage disposal. Betsy switches on the stereo, drops a record on the turntable, turns up the volume, and leaves her house in Jeff’s car.

Dave waits in the back of Mr. Griffin’s car while Jeff and Mark put nylon stockings over their heads to cover their faces. Betsy is to meet them soon with Jeff’s car. They spot Susan walking through the parking lot with Mr. Griffin, who offers her a ride home. Susan seems nervous. Susan cries as the boys attack Mr. Griffin in his car, placing a thick bag over his head and pinning his arms to his side. Mark sees that Susan is crying and tells her to stop in a disgusted voice. The boys drive away with Mr. Griffin tied and masked up; Susan is to wait for Betsy and then meet them at the deserted waterfall Mark brought them to for their picnic.

When Betsy pulls in, Susan tells her to go off without her. Betsy is disappointed she missed the kidnapping because a police officer pulled her over due to speeding, though she denies that she was. Susan feels her part is done and she doesn’t want to watch whatever will happen next. Betsy doesn’t understand why Susan wants to stay behind and tells her that Susan will miss the moment they have been waiting for. Susan sees that Betsy’s face has the same expression it does when she cheers on the sidelines as a cheerleader at the school football games. Betsy says she doesn’t understand Susan and Susan says she doesn’t understand herself either. She is haunted by Mr. Griffin’s voice, who shouted at her to run as he was attacked. He didn’t fear for himself as much as he had feared for his student.

Chapter 7 Summary

Betsy gets turned around on her way to the waterfall. She’s peeved that the boys hadn’t waited for her. Betsy is used to getting what she wants; her parents are doting and influential, and her looks and popularity solidify Betsy’s respect and fear from peers and teachers alike. Except, for Mr. Griffin. When her parents sent her to school with a note asking Mr. Griffin to go easier on criticizing Betsy, Mr. Griffin returned the note attached to an assignment graded with a D and a response that said she wouldn’t be criticized if she hadn’t earned it. When her father asked if she wanted to switch classes, Betsy declined saying that if one person feels like they could intimidate her, then they all would feel that they could. There’s one other male who doesn’t fall for her cute charm—Mark, for whom Betsy harbors a secret crush despite hooking up with his best friend Jeff.

Betsy remembers how Mr. Griffin realized Mark was dating Lana, a college sophomore, when he read Mark’s assignment and it was familiar to him. The assignment was a paper that Lana submitted to Mr. Griffin when he was a professor, and Mr. Griffin contacted the college to determine who accessed the paper. Mr. Griffin dropped Mark from his class and Lana’s father blamed Mark for influencing her to help him cheat. Lana’s father removed her from the college and took her away from Mark, to Betsy’s delight.

When Betsy finally finds the road to the waterfall, she sees Mr. Griffin’s car and parks alongside it. She notices that the road leading away from the cars mark a struggle and finds Mr. Griffin’s pill bottle on the ground. She follows the path until she sees the boys gathered around Mr. Griffin, who lays blindfolded and tied up on the ground. Betsy laughs at the sight because it looks like he’s about to start class, even though he’s tied up. When she speaks, Jeff motions for her to come near, and tells her that she needs to use an accent, so she isn’t recognized.

The students put on fake voices as they yell at Mr. Griffin. The teacher isn’t cowed by their treatment and accurately determines how many of them there are and how they got to the school. He says he won’t give them any money and responds dismissively when they reveal that they represent the students he has made miserable in his classes. Betsy brings out the bottle of pills and asks about it; the pills are nitroglycerin for Mr. Griffin’s angina. Jeff asks if they’ll explode and sets a few pills on a rock, ready to smash them. Mr. Griffin responds that the pills are for medical reasons.

They order him to beg to be let go, the way they’ve had to beg for his kindness in class. When he refuses to beg, Betsy tells Mark that she wants him to make Mr. Griffin cry. Jeff suggests loosening the ropes around Mr. Griffin, and Mark refuses and says that Mr. Griffin must beg like he had beg Mr. Griffin to be let back into his class. Jeff says he doesn’t think Mr. Griffin will beg, to which Mark responds that they will leave him there to die if he doesn’t. Dave takes them aside to discuss what to do next. Dave wants to loosen Mr. Griffin’s binds and leave, believing he’s scared enough. But Mark insists on hearing Mr. Griffin beg and plead for mercy. They leave Mr. Griffin tightly tied up on the path. Betsy looks back and at the sight of the teacher, has the sudden urge to step on his face.

Chapter 8 Summary

When Susan refuses to take Dave’s phone calls, he borrows his mother’s car and drives to Susan’s house. Susan reluctantly agrees to go out with him. She asks what happened to Mr. Griffin and Dave assures her that they left him near the waterfall unharmed. Mark and Jeff will go back to pick Mr. Griffin up after Mark’s game. Susan insists on going back to Mr. Griffin now, worried that the cold will kill him. She tells Dave that Mr. Griffin cared about her and wanted to save her from also being kidnapped. Struck by Susan’s tears, Dave agrees to return to Mr. Griffin. As Dave drives them towards the waterfall, he wonders why he agreed to Mark’s outrageous and demeaning plan in the first place. He’s surprised to find himself happy as Susan scoots closer to him in the car and they discuss their plans for the future on the drive. They find Mr. Griffin’s car then use a flashlight to search for him. Susan spots him and begs for his forgiveness. Thinking that Mr. Griffin is asleep, Susan goes to untie him, and Dave removes his blindfold. Mr. Griffin’s eyes are open, and they realize that Mr. Griffin is dead.

Chapter 9 Summary

Dave rushes Susan away so they can track down Mark. Dave has faith that Mark will know what to do next. Dave insists that they hadn’t done anything to kill Mr. Griffin and that they can’t do anything about the teacher until they talk to Mark. Susan’s calm demeanor frightens Dave as he gathers the group after the school basketball game, and he finds her reaction unnerving. Trying to reach for Susan’s hand to hold, Dave is overcome with the urge to hold her and to tell her to cry for Mr. Griffin, for herself, and for the rest of them.

Mark, Betsy, Jeff, Susan, and Dave gather off campus to discuss the situation. Mark points out that they all have alibis that will mean no one can pin Mr. Griffin’s death on them. Susan is amazed at Mark and Betsy’s plan not to tell anyone what happened. He also notes that if they do get caught even just for the kidnapping, they’ll be tried as adults. Mark decides they need to get rid of the body and Mr. Griffin’s car. Susan panics, saying that they can’t bury Mr. Griffin and pretend like nothing happened, that all five of them are responsible, and that she wants to tell her parents. She feels guilty about Mr. Griffin’s death and is certain it was their fault. Mark coaxes her down from her panic, reasoning that Mr. Griffin could have died anywhere because he was already sick. Susan responds that he could have died at home, to which Mark quietly confesses that his own father died at home after his house burned down. Susan breaks down crying, and Mark holds her while she cries, calling her baby and asks Dave for a handkerchief to dry her tears. Mark tells Dave to drive them to the Snack-‘n-Soda so that people will see them out and then they will all go home.

Chapters 6-9 Analysis

Immediately upon kidnapping Mr. Griffin, the only character who feels remorse, guilt, and concern is Susan. Her crisis of conscience reveals the inner layer of her characterization, in which Susan is morally good, empathetic, and uninterested in hurting other people. Susan’s participation in the kidnapping plan is out of character, and she regrets it immediately. But Susan is also made to feel guilty by her sudden discovery that Mr. Griffin, contrary to what his students think, genuinely cares about his students. As Mr. Griffin is attacked in his car, he shouts at Susan to run, demonstrating that he cares more about her wellbeing than his own, and that even in a moment of intense fear and surprise, he thinks of the safety of his students. This act redeems Mr. Griffin’s humanity while his students dehumanize him through a secretive and ostentatious attack.

Duncan provides an opportunity for the students to end the kidnapping before anyone gets hurt. Dave encourages Mark to release Mr. Griffin early in the afternoon, but Mark wants Mr. Griffin to beg for forgiveness. This moment of tension is important in three ways. First, it reveals the depths of Mark’s cruelty. Mark doesn’t just want to scare Mr. Griffin, Mark wants to feel power over Mr. Griffin. Second, it shows that the other students did not want Mr. Griffin to suffer as much as Mark did, and yet are easily persuaded by Mark. Jeff agrees with Dave that they don’t need to prolong the kidnapping, but Mark quickly persuades them to agree with what he wants. Mark decides they should keep Mr. Griffin tied up to scare him further, then fetch him when its nighttime, when Mark is sure that he’ll beg. That the others can be so easily persuaded by Mark against doing something that is obviously safer for everyone involved highlights Mark’s influence and the others’ gullibility. Finally, this moment is important because it is, narratively speaking, the point of no return. Up until the moment they leave Mr. Griffin alone outside, tied up and gagged, there is still a chance for them to avoid hurting anyone and to change their minds about the entire situation. Kidnapping Mr. Griffin is one thing but leaving him alone in the wilderness without any way to help himself escalates the severity of the danger Mr. Griffin will face. This moment, then, foreshadows Mr. Griffin’s death. It is also suspicious that Mark is the only one who wants to leave Mr. Griffin, who ends up dead because of this decision. Though his friends convinced him away from his original proposals that they kill Mr. Griffin, Mark gets what he wants anyway.

Mark’s culpability is heightened by the reveal that he was once removed from Mr. Griffin’s class but begged his way back in. Mark has a score to settle with Mr. Griffin, and this revelation illustrates that he has been biding his time for the perfect moment to exact his version of revenge. Mark’s intentions are different than the intentions of his friends, presenting Mark as the primary antagonist.

It is implied that Mr. Griffin died from his inaccessible medication for angina, which was confiscated by Betsy. Angina is a serious chest pain that occurs when there is a reduction of blood flow to the heart. Mr. Griffin’s bottle of pills is life-saving because untreated angina can lead to a fatal heart attack. Mr. Griffin’s health problem adds another layer of tension to the narrative. Though his kidnappers are aware of his medications, they don’t know what angina or the pills are and mock him. This highlights that the students really haven’t thought about the ramifications of their actions. They didn’t consider or care about the possibility that Mr. Griffin could be placed in immediate physical danger because of pre-existing conditions. This ignorance and lack of insight demonstrates how naïve the students are.

Mark’s cruelty is complemented by Betsy’s zest for violence. Betsy is seduced by Mark’s aloofness and his inability to fall for her charm. Betsy is the foil to Susan; Betsy is popular, cute, and confident. Betsy is also antithetical to Susan because unlike Susan, Betsy’s moral code is easily degraded and compromised by her desire to look cool. While Susan may have gone along with the plan at first to impress Dave, Betsy commits to it and genuinely enjoys seeing Mark flex power over Mr. Griffin. Betsy enjoys the violence inherent in Mark’s aggression towards Mr. Griffin and indeed, to the world. Betsy is a character whose dishonesty and desire to be liked by everyone makes her an active participant in the power struggle.

Though it is early foreshadowed that Mr. Griffin will die, his death still poses a major plot twist. The stakes of the teenagers’ participation is now heightened, and Duncan uses dramatic irony to activate his reader’s empathy for Mr. Griffin. Unlike the teenagers who killed him, the reader knows that Mr. Griffin has a good heart and a pregnant wife waiting for him at home. Mr. Griffin’s death marks the starting point of a new conflict as the teenagers are faced with the responsibility of covering their tracks and getting away with murder.