Boy - Mrs. Pratchett's Revenge by Roald Dahl

Because the boys put a dead mouse in the Gobstopper jar, Mrs. Pratchett wants revenge. Roald and his friends are called to the Headmaster's office to get a caning. Every boy gets 4 strokes, plus an extra one every time they straighten up. Thwaites has to go first, and, somehow, Roald ends up at the back. He describes the waiting as an even worse torturethan the actual caning. Mr. Coombes is and expert in caning, he is so good that he can hit on the same spot every time.
Then, at bath time at home, Roald's mom sees the scarlet marks with  the blue bruising in between that were caused by the cane. She goes to see the Headmaster to tell him that she doesn't want her son to be treated/punished like that.


I don't think that this punishment was appropriate, even though the boys did something that deserved a punishment. Physical punishment should not be applied, even if the student or students did something very bad. Caning is just painful, plus it could stop the boys from doing PE.


I think that punishment should be differnt for every single individual. Teachers should take away something that the student really likes, something he/she is depending on. For example the student's telephone, school privileges, etc. Or, teachers should make students write a sentence 100 times (or maybe not that much). If the student broke a window, the teacher should make him/her write "I will not break any more windows, nor will I do anything that might result in a broken window. When I went to school in France, they used to make us do that, no matter what we did. The number of sentences varied depending on what we did.


Roald Dahl made this chapter engaging by using similes and adjectives. Like, when Thwaites was caned "he straightened up like elastic". Or, Mr. Coombes "was like an athlete spurred on by the cries of the crowd" He also used some dialogue, which made the reader think thaey were actually there, listening to what was going on, for example when Mrs. Pratchett was shrieking and yelling to hit the children harder.