Suicide In Elizabeth Fernandez's Dying Young

It’s easy to feel worthless. Almost every person feels this deep emotion at some time in life, but people handle it different. Everywhere people are always judging. Judgement from parents, from family, and even from friends is inescapable. People can tear themselves down in many ways, such as through school, not feeling they look good enough, and even just not feeling like they’re ever good enough to be living on Earth. In Janice Mirikitani’s poem “Suicide Note,” it talks about an Asian-American student currently in college. She tries her hardest, she wants to succeed and make her parents proud. Her parents have high standards for her, as they want her to receive a 4.0 grade point average. Although she gives her best effort, her grade point average is still less than a 4.0, and for that reason her parents are not proud of her, she’s not their perfect, ideal daughter. So she enters that point where she no longer feels proud of her accomplishments, she feels worthless, and unintelligent. She decides to commit suicide by jumping out of a window in her college dorm. In her suicide note she apologizes to her parents for not being good enough. “Suicide Note” is a free form poem, it has no set stanzaic pattern, the sentences break in unexpected places, and the structure varies throughout the poem. It uses imagery to connect with the reader, and the stanzas are set up in way that make the lines to appear as they are falling. Through the use of enjambment, and end-stopped line the

Suicide is a very sad subject for all those who have had a relative or friend who went through it. However, suicide doesn’t only go across teens minds it also happens to adults as seen in the article, “Survivors of Suicide Loss”. Jessica is the daughter of a man who went through suicide and she says, “The emotions that ran through me are close to indescribable, as I had never felt such pain. How this could have happened, and most importantly, how could this have happened to me and my family.” This is a case where the suicide was caused by depression. At the end of the day we all have to just try and be closer to those we care for and

From experts on this issue, to the civilians in the public, it is expressed deeply that suicide should not be hidden from any person, including children. It is said that, ¨Each day in our nation there are an average of over 5,400 attempts by young people grades 7-12,¨ (The Parent Resource Program). The thought of a lovely girl named AnnMarie Blaha may come into mind, who took her life in 2013, and was a fifth grader at Meadow Ridge. Nothing can compare to the tragedy of why AnnMarie decided to commit suicide, and the sadness that overwhelmed the school districts was unbearable. From learning about AnnMarie’s story, it can show that like most parents of children who commit suicide, AnnMarie’s parents who had no idea of their daughter’s unknown situation. I confronted my parents, asking them certain questions dealing with this difficult topic. The first question I asked was, “Do you know where to go if you believe your child is thinking of suicide?” Unfortunately, neither one of my parents were able to answer question, because like parents of suicidal children, the thought has never crossed their minds. Since AnnMarie’s death, the importance of educating children and teens of suicide has grown tremendously, and a Prevention Law called, ¨AnnMaries Law,¨ was signed by Governor Bruce Rauner to require ¨the Illinois State Board Education and local school boards to create policies ensuring that students receive age-appropriate lessons youth suicide and prevention¨ (Chicago Tribune). Multiple websites describe the traumatizing death of AnnMarie, but one in particular called, ¨AnnMarie’s Foundation, A Life to Remember,¨ provides resources, hotlines, facts, and notifies the community of warning signals that may be given off by any person. The raise in education is highly needed in all communities. In

In this source features statics of the teen suicide stating that teen suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in adolescence ages 11 to 15 it goes on to say that from 2003-2015 suicide has claimed the lives of over 5,500 youth. It was sound that there was a pattern of similarities between the youth that varied in race from Caucasian, African American, and Asian. There were relationship problems, mostly with their parents. Data also revealed that the individuals showed progression towards suicidal behavior. This source is full of factual information regarding suicide without bias. Therefore it was very useful in my research. I found the source on EBSCO by searching teen suicide in the search bar.

Conformity: Jailer and Enemy John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth” (“John F. Kennedy”). This quote is most definitely true for any type of society. Whether it is the society in which John F. Kennedy lived in, present-day society, or the society that can be read about in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In this novel, the characters have no other choice than to conform to the society in which they inhabit.

This source focuses on the aspect of teen suicides and how they connect with each other along with suicide events that are considered copycat suicides. The sources main focus is suicides in a particular location, in this case it is in Colorado. Max Kutner is an author for Newsweek, he puts a great emphasis on a girl named Riley that committed suicide in Colorado. Kutner’s background on whether he is well versed in teen suicide is unknown, his research on the subject seems well thought out. The audience can be a group of which have seen an increase in suicide rates, one after the other and wants to see how another location is dealing with it. This source is supportive with other sources on the same topic by which copycat suicides is on the rise in teenagers. The Colorado suicide rate between 2015 and 2016 stands out as being 49 times the yearly national average for kids their age. Found this source by searching copycat suicides in Opposing Viewpoints database.

The recent death of Robin Williams, famous actor and comedian, has sparked some dialog about suicide. It seems that his death pried opened some eyes to see this silenced issue. Our society begins to talk about suicide more and more everyday. Not too long ago, my community faced several suicides. One of my friends killed herself in late September of 2013. Over the following year, three more suicides occurred in the surrounding schools. Those deaths were incredibly painful for family and friends, myself included. This brought realization to me, students, and parents in the county. It came to our attention that there was a problem rising, that is still growing, in our schools and homes. Suicide is often found in youth because it is a troubled time for most people that age, but Robin Williams death also brings attention to the increasing

See their problem was because a family where’s today suicide occurs from both family and society's expectations. With that in mind, this is about the debate between whether societies and our families or others’ expectations is the undoing of our very own teens.

The issue of the high suicide rates in teens is an issue in many other countries, like Canada. In many provinces in Canada the suicide rate for males is 40 times the national average ( Recognizing Risk). This affects teenagers and definitely their parents. The loss of a young life affects the family and society for years, as they struggle to understand what happened (Recognizing Risk). It is very unfortunate that the risk of teenager suicide is so high. The family of the teenagers who follow through with suicide become emotionally ruined. For these families it is an everyday thing to wonder what type of adult their child would have became. When a teenager commits suicide it leaves their friends to think about what they could have done to stop it, and often the friends begin to blame the loss of their friend on

“More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined,” according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an issue thoroughly discussed in the novel The Program by Suzanne Young. This dystopian story features a society where there is an overwhelming amount of teen suicide. It uses many realistic aspects of life that allows the reader to relate to the exaggerated reality of the story. The author uses the act of suicide and brings it to an extreme sense to create a realistic plot.

The poem, “Suicide Note,” by Janice Mirikitani, is about a young Asian-American female college student who decides to end her life by jumping out of her dormitory window. Her last words, thoughts and emotions were written in the note she left behind. This note is recorded in the form of a poem, and permits the reader to see what can cause an individual to commit suicide. To begin, the girl has is a perfectionist, which pushes her to be extremely judgemental of herself. She's also unfortunately set irrational measures for herself, and was unable to get high marks on exams. As the girl waits on the ledge of her building in preparation for death, snow has begun to fall, leaving her hesitant as to what to do. It then arises to her just how upset

In this very confounding story, written by Louisa Valenzuela, it is questioned to whether a suicide really occured or not. From the beginning of the story the reader is told of a death that protrays a suicide. By using the words “his” and “he”, ambiguity took place. Though it may seem that Ismael had killed himself, the ending is contradicting. Thoughout this short story, Louisa helps explain the political realities of Argentina in the 1960’s.

The lack of exposing young people to this information has caused teens to not seek help.“Suicide is the second main reason for 13-19-year-old deaths.”

Teen suicide is something that is endless, it will never stop but if everyone was educated on it, it could help prevent deaths. I think with people provided with statistics and further information can help avoid adolescent suicide attempts. I think most teen suicide cases could be prevent if we knew the signs to look for and the ways to stop it. I believe parents would feel safer if they knew knowledge on the issue and how to handle it. The intended audiences for this essay is parents or friends of suicidal teens. This essay is important because, as mentioned earlier, we need to be educated on suicide to end tons of tragedies. It is also important to be aware of the warning signs to help prevent. This essay is relevant because teen suicide is a war that happens daily, and will continue to happen, until we take control of the situation and do something to stop it. If family members were informed of the cause and symptoms leading up to the attempt of suicide, then there is less likely that teenagers would try and commit

There are thousands of poems floating around written by bitter or depressed teenagers that are never recognised as works of art. Another form of escape for teenagers is, unfortunately, suicide. It is alarming how high the teen suicide rates have risen over the past decade. Yet, it is comforting that there are support groups and counsellors available now to aid teens through their troubles. Because no one wants to see a life full of promise and potential end abruptly because of a little sorrow in one kid's life. Another reason for teen suicide is their home life. The teenager gets caught in the middle of an argument between their parents, and they take the blame personally. This is not right. Sometimes the child is beaten or abused and is forced to run away into the streets, where they become homeless, and sometimes abducted. Sometimes they just die in a back alley during a cold winterOs night, and they are never missed. At sixteen, a teenager knows about suffering, because he himself has suffered, but he barely knows that other beings also suffer.