Let's Play Poison story
A teacher vows revenge after witnessing his star pupil's death due to bullying. Directed by: Bruce Pittman. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
10 total · 1 choice · 6 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| the desire for vengeance | choice | Mr. Howard witnessed the tragic death of his favorite student who was being chased by bullies. He decided to avenge himself on all children by being tyrannical in the classroom. The students then decided to avenge themselves on him, and bring about his death. |
| childish bullying | major | Mr. Howard's pet pupil was bullied because of his bookish appearance. |
| coping with the death of someone | major | Mr. Howard was devastated when his pet pupil, Michael, died tragically in a bullying incident at school. He kept Michael's pencil case as a memento, and was working on a scratchboard etching of the boy around the time of his own demise. |
| human childhood | major | Michael was tormented by bullies at school. Mr. Howard's elementary school students coped with his reign of terror in the classroom. |
| mentor and protégé | major | The story concerns an elementary school teacher and his star pupil. |
| murder | major | Mr. Howard was killed by students who were fed up with his tyrannical ways of running a classroom. |
| what it is like in elementary school | major | The viewer is shown a portrayal of the type of bullying that might have transpired in a contemporary elementary school classroom. |
| alcohol abuse | minor | Mr. Howard clearly drank too much, and his intoxicated state of mind undoubtedly contributed to his demise. |
| creative writing | minor | In the introduction, Ray Bradbury shared with the viewer the wellsprings of creativity that inspire his writing. |
| the nature of creativity | minor | In his introduction, Ray Bradbury gave his viewers an intimate window into his writing room, and some of the self-professed sources of creativity that lay about within it. |