Killing Mr. Griffin

can someone give me a good summary of this book, in less that 3 weeks. PLEASE you don't know how bad i need this:(

i have a report due, and i cant read the book. Please HELP:(

Asked by
Last updated by anonymous
2 Answers
Log in to answer
The idea of this site is to give you a place to ask questions in order to help you with your homework. To write a summary of this book would be doing you homework and that is not what this site is for.
here is a summary of the entire novel:

Brian Griffin is a strict and proper high school Great Literature teacher who never accepts late homework and is extremely tough on students, and gives projects every two days. After giving out Fs to a group of students who fail to turn in their papers on time, they decide to get revenge by kidnapping him. Mark Kinney is the most often singled out by Mr. Griffin, because the semester before Mark had plagiarized a term paper with help from his former girlfriend, Lana Turnbolt, who stole the paper from the college she was attending at the time. Ironically, this was the same college that Mr. Griffin had formerly served as an assistant professor. Instantly recognizing this paper, Mr. Griffin checked the college archives and then failed Mark and humiliates him in front of his class, making him beg to be allowed to take the course again.

Later, in the company of his wife Kathy, Mr. Griffin admits that he gave up a chance at tenure in the college, deciding to return to high school to teach students to properly write. While Mr. Griffin earned a Ph.D at Stanford University and became an assistant professor in the state college, Kathryn was a C student in high school and later worked as a clerk in a department store.

The group of friends includes Mark Kinney, David Ruggles (president of the high school's senior class), Jeff (a basketball player) and Betsy (the head cheerleader). Mark lives with his aunt and uncle Ivan, who helped him get back into Griffin's class, but Mark spurns them—leaving the house first thing in the morning and returning late at night. David is a good and popular student aiming to get the state university scholarship, so a poor grade in Griffin's literature class would jeopardize that. David faces further pressures in his life to succeed in order to be able to support his family, since his mother is in a dead-end secretarial job, and as his nagging and lazy grandmother lives with them. David hopes to fulfill the expectations of his father—whose alma mater was Stanford—and who had years ago left the family for some unknown reason. Jeff is completely obedient to Mark and does things for the group like driving them around and often paying for their meals. Jeff's parents do not approve of Mark, but assume that he hangs out with a well-adjusted student like Jeff because Mark comes from a dysfunctional family and must idolize Jeff, when it is actually the opposite. Betsy is spoiled and snobbish, being popular in high school social circles, and secretly has a crush on Mark, though she is Jeff's girlfriend.

Mark has the idea to kidnap Mr. Griffin, saying it's only as a prank to scare the teacher and "teach him a lesson", while it's really only because Mark wants revenge after Griffin made a fool out of him last semester. Betsy and Jeff are totally devoted to Mark, and he easily convinces them. Another teacher at their school, the young and easygoing Miss Dolly Luna, was kidnapped as a prank for her birthday, and had loved it—a fact that Mark uses to convince the others that his idea is not totally outlandish. Mark suggests that they could use the help of David Ruggles, who, as the senior president, would be above suspicion. David could help them enlist the help of Susan, who has a large crush on David. They need her as a decoy.

Susan McConnell arranges to have a conference after school about her falling English grades with Mr. Griffin. She walks with him to the school parking lot, where he is ambushed by Mark, David, and Jeff. David had arrived late, because he had drugged his grandmother so that he could come, and had to wait till she fell asleep. They drive him to a secret place in the mountains—an area so remote, that Mark is the only one who has used it, for outings with his former girlfriend, Lana Turnbolt.

Betsy arrives in the parking lot after the boys have left with Mr. Griffin. She was late, thanks to a speeding ticket. Susan was supposed to get in the car with Betsy, but Susan doesn't want to take any more part in the scheme than she has to. Betsy heads to the mountains. Once she arrives, the group begins taunting Mr. Griffin, telling him to beg for his life or they would kill him. They find Mr. Griffin's medicine and don't give it back, eventually smashing the pills without knowing their purpose. Mark tells Mr. Griffin to beg or they will leave him there the whole night. However, Mr. Griffin refuses, so they abandon him there on Mark's orders, blindfolded and bound.

Later, Susan defies Mark and begs David to go check on Mr. Griffin. He gives in, and when they reach the spot, they find him dead. They later learn that Mr. Griffin had a condition named angina pectoris. Usually, he would have taken his pills to deal with the condition, but was unable to. Susan and David hurry to find Mark, Jeff, and Betsy, who were at a basketball game. Mark decides that they will cover up their accidental murder instead of going to the police..