Summary Of Don 'T Call Me Ishmael !'

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Brief Teacher Notes Scholastic Australia Limited Don’t Call Me Ishmael! Michael Gerard Bauer Michael Gerard Bauer’s second novel for young adults reveals a wonderful comic talent. Written in a vernacular style, the book is very much a school story as well as a comedy, and demonstrates Michael’s long familiarity with boys in boys’ schools and how they speak to each other. The teacher characters, although for the most part in the background, are particularly well realised. The story is told predominantly in dialogue, and the first-person narration makes for direct and immediate storytelling. Set-piece scenes in the novel, such as the rugby match won by the enthusiastic Peter Chung, and Ishmael’s maiden debate, where he struggles not only…show more content…
Ishmael finds the courage to participate. And finally he is confident enough to take the fight to Barry Bagsley; he can almost taste revenge for the humiliation he and others have suffered. The results are unexpected. Notes for teachers • The theme of bullying strong in the book: the name-calling, the victimisation of those who are different or less able socially are both ways that Barry Bagsley finds to belittle others. Class discussion could be based on a consideration of the characters and the different ways they deal with bullying. The bullying is done for no understandable reason, as the author shows. What would be other ways to combat bullying? • Teamwork is demonstrated in the novel in the boys’ efforts to present a united front for their debating team. Perhaps a formal debate with four speakers against and four speakers for the affirmative could be arranged to discuss such questions as: ‘That unchecked bullying in schools leads to world conflict’; ‘That intelligence always overcomes brute force.’ • Students could emulate Prue Leseur’s peg people and create their own versions of world leaders, or famous actors or musicians, and present them in class, describing why they chose the person, and their
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