Terror, shock, desperateness, all feelings of the Columbine victims. Through the narration of the encounter between Patti Nielson and the shooters during the beginning moments of the Columbine shooting in chapter 11 of Columbine, a memoir, Dave Cullen adopts an informative tone in order to focus young adults’ attention to the ruthlessness of the Columbine shooting. Before realizing the true reality of the situation, Patty Nielson’s action’s depicted in the passage infuriate the reader as a result of Cullen’s word choice in chapter 11. By contrasting theory and terrifying reality Cullen keeps the reader aggravated and informed with intentional word choice in Chapter 11. Nielson didn’t understand the severity and instead assumed the shooting was “a prank, obviously” (50). Although Nielson at the time believed she was witnessing an everyday prank by a few delinquent teenagers, the reader knows that the guns were real and other students were being killed. Because of the dramatic irony in this passage, the reader feels irritated that Nielson had the opportunity to help end the mayhem instead of letting herself feel annoyed. Because Nielson thought the events were clearly a prank, Cullen used the word obviously to help the reader understand Nielson’s actions for approaching the gunmen. The word “obviously” reveals how Nielson didn’t give the appearance of a gun a second thought of being dangerous, but because the reader knows the reality of the actions occurring, the reader feels
In the 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine, American political activist and filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the primary causes of the 1999 Columbine Highschool massacre, as well as the roots of gun violence in the United States in his trademark provocative yet satirical manner. Bowling for Columbine takes a deep and often disconcerting investigation into the motives of two Colorado student shooters, responsible for the deaths of over 12 people at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and examines other gun-related issues as well. From obtaining free guns at a bank, to reviewing America’s violent history, and interviewing a variety of people, Moore demonstrates that the conventional answers of violent national history and entertainment, as well as poverty are inadequate of causing this violence, for other nations share the same factors without the same levels of carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Moore takes on a deeper inspection of America’s culture of fear, and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Ultimately, the documentary implies that the high incidence of gun deaths in America is caused by the deadly combination of cultural paranoia and easy accessible firearms that is, to some extent, effectively established through rhetorical techniques of ethos, logos, and pathos.
In the novel "Columbine" by Dave Cullen, Cullen addresses one of the worst acts of terrorism to ever happen in the nation. Cullen wrote this book to inform readers about what led to such a disturbing act and what the gunman's motive for committing such an act of crime. Cullen talks about the life of the high school before the shooting and he also discusses the lives of the two shooters pre-massacre. Cullen's purpose is to help readers understand and go in depth about how the school before, during, and after the shooting. This information will most likely not be talked about by news sources.
This investigation will explore the question: “Why did Columbine happen and what can be learned from it?”. This investigation focuses on the events that took place in the columbine massacre, the two boys that committed the tragedy and why, and how to prevent school shootings like this from happening again. The majority of this evidence is derived from articles, books,
In the novel Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey provides us the audience an insight into the characters’ pursuit of truth by exploring overarching ideas such as Fear, Racism and Scapegoating and linking them with character dialogue as well as narrator descriptions. The main truth presented by Craig Silvey is the investigation of Laura Wishart’s death, by pursuing this truth Charlie uncovers truths about his family and town. I believe that by using these overarching ideas, silver is able to offer us a deep insight into the characters’ pursuit of truth.
Miller lures readers into his essay with a bone-chilling tone established in the introduction of the essay. The essay opens with vivid descriptions and investigation of the Columbine shootings, “the boy with the bleeding head being dropped from the window” (435). Miller’s utilizes a dark tone to prepare readers for an essay that reveals the darkness in today’s society. The main argument Miller provides is these horrendous events are extremely complex with the motives being mostly unknown in many cases. The inclusion of quotes from Eric Harris’ dairy, one of the Columbine Shooter, effectively persuades readers through the method of logos. Miller samples Harris, “I want to leave
The first misconception is that the social cliques that occur in high schools across the nation has a role in this tragedy. Columbine is not simply a school shooting but is rather a shooting that the gunmen chose the school as their tool. School shooters tend to act impulsively and attack the targets of their rage mainly the students and faculty. Harris and Klebold planned for a year and dreamed much bigger. The school served as a means to a grander end, to terrorize the entire nation by attacking a symbol of American life. The shooters talk in numerous video tapes about their act being bigger than the Oklahoma city bombings. They boasted about making sure there bloody performance was bigger and more memorable. Klebold is particular was quoted as bragging about inflicting “the most deaths in U.S. history. Columbine was
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the terrified!
Newman begins her book by telling the stories of two different rampage shootings, at Heath High School and Westside Middle School. Once she establishes the shooters and the subjects of her study, Newman lays out her thesis and explains that her research shows that many factors contribute
"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of
The subject of student rights has caused a lot of confusion and anger for decades now. There are two different sides that everyone seems to fall into. Some people want the constitutional rights of students to be fully protected within the school. The other side believes that, as a public institution, schools should regulate what is said or done by students to protect everyone involved. This is where it gets confusing, because it is hard to draw the line between what is allowed or not. The three most interesting topics that I chose to cover are a student’s right to free speech, religion within the school and student privacy.
School violence, is an issue that is hard to deal with. There are things that may be done to decrease it but it does not seem like it will ever go away. Parents send their children to school to learn, to have fun, to pass notes, and to meet new people, not to be shot at and never have the chance to come home ever again. They should not have to think or be afraid of sending their child to school and never seeing them. Last year one of the worst school shootings took place at Columbine High School. Not only did it effect the famlies of the victims and of the killers, pretty much the whole nation was involved and many people were brought in to figure out what had happened, and why it happened. This incident brought our nation together, and
Taking place in the future, Watney first expresses to the reading audience his frustration and the situation he is enduring. The first page tells the reader different segments of Watney's characterization. Watney begins to reveal to the reading audience the events leading up to his
Columbine by Dave Cullen tells the events that unfolded on April 20th, 1999. That day, two boys, self-proclaimed rebels, armed themselves and proceeded to murder the same students they had walked the halls with for four years. As the stories of Dylan, Eric, and the victims of this tragic day came to light, many falsehoods also arose. Unfortunately, the myths and truths about Columbine still linger with us today. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold left a lasting impression on the world; but left behind the truth as to why they really did it. This leaves us to wonder what really happened on that fateful day.
Parents of the kids who were killed in the shooting were upset and fuming at the same time. When parents of the passed were allowed to pay respects to their children, Brian Rohrbough was almost censored when he called Columbine School District “godless” and ended with a bible verse, Isaiah 48:22, saying “There is no peace for the wicked”. This book shows the plan, execution and aftermath of the Columbine School Shooting, and shows the lasting effects, both physical and emotional, an event such as this can have on a group of human beings.
On Tuesday, April 20 1999, Columbine High School located in Columbine Colorado an unfortunate massacre happened and many teens lost their lives. The two students responsible for this incident were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. These two senior students were responsible for killing twelve students and one teacher; they were also responsible for injuring an additional twenty one students on their rampage. A few other students were injured while trying to escape the school. Columbine is considered the fourth deadliest school massacre in history. It was said to be that there was not one target but everyone was a target on Eric and Dylan’s rampage through the high school