You can’t touch me

1) Summary
”You can’t touch me” is a short story written by Blake Morrison in 2010. The short story is about a teacher’s use of physical coercion towards a primary school student to demonstrate his authority and the following consequences of that choice. The short story’s main character is the primary school teacher Ian Goade. One day in the schoolyard he observes a school bully, Campbell, teasing another student. Ian Goade breaks into the conflict and blames Campbell and tries to reprimand him and commands him to go with him to the headmistress of the school Mrs Baynes’ office. Campbell refuses to follow and then Ian Goade grabs his ear and drags him to Mrs Baynes. The headmistress sees Ian Goade’s handling of the conflict as wrong and so does Campbell’s mother who makes an official complaint about Ian Goade. Ian Goade tries to reason with Campbell’s mother and the headmistress but fails, resulting in an upcoming hearing with the governors.

2) Characterize Ian Goade
Ian Goade is a primary school teacher, the narrator and the main character of the short story “You can’t touch me”. This characterization will focus on Ian Goade and why he used physical coercion instead of a more proper handling of the conflict.

The dialogue used in the short story shows that Ian Goade is a man who has experienced other men’s authority physically. He tells about his father’s rages and that he remembers the physical methods his own teachers used when he was a student like Campbell. But in spite of these experiences he believes that he is a good male role model for a bully like Campbell. This shows that he likes himself a lot. Indirectly he calls himself intelligent in the beginning of the short story, which also indicates his delight of himself. No matter how hard his wife and the headmistress tries to convince him that he was wrong and should stay calm,