Discussing Zephaniahs Face Essay -- Benjamin Zephaniah

I have read the book ‘Face’ by Benjamin Zephaniah, a Jamaican author and poet. He grew up in east London where he decided the book should be set. His previous experiences from being a victim of racial discrimination and prejudice and being a teenage rebel, involved in theft and drug crimes gave him a stimulus to write the book. The author himself having been discriminated upon found himself using previous burn victims like Simon Weston, who was badly burnt in the Falklands war, to help his book seem more realistic. This story is about Martin. He's the leader of the Gang of Three, and the classroom joker. He lives in the East End of London. You have to be careful what you say and who you say it to on the streets of Martin's neighborhood - not that Martin is particularly racist. This book challenges some very serious points from discrimination to teenage issues and coping with a traumatic situation and this is what I will discuss in my essay. There are many cases of prejudice and discrimination in this book. When Martin sees the Jamaican girls standing outside the club he imm...