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Essay about The Devastating Suicide in Bone

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The Devastating Suicide in Bone

In Bone, by Fae Myenne Ng, the character Ona Leong grows up in a Chinese-American family in San Francisco. Ona shared her home with two sisters that are extreme opposites, a mother who works in sweatshops and a father who works out at sea for long periods. Ona grew up loving every member of her family and each one of them believed that she was on the road to success. But on a day like any other, Ona commits suicide by jumping off of the thirteenth floor of the Nam building. Without any warning of her unhappiness, the family finds themselves only being able to guess as to why she would do such a thing. How did Ona express her unhappiness? And how does Ona's choice of suicide affect loved ones? …show more content…

Tragically, the decision to put ones own life to an end happened 31,142 times in 1994 alone, causing suicide to be the ninth leading cause of death in the United States (JAMA, 24, 974).

Much of what is told to love ones, prior to a suicide, depends on what the source of the unhappiness is. It was once stated in an essay by Mary Rose Barrington, "Many middle-aged people are heard to express the fervent wish that they will not want to live [in pain]" (Bender 116). They wish to be put out of their misery and therefore tell others so that their wishes can be honored. Ona commits suicide after her father, Leon, threatens to disown her for seeing a young man whose family Leon strongly dislikes. She grew up loving her father, and to be disowned by him would have been a major loss in her life; a loss considerably close to death.

When Ona was young, Leon enjoyed walking the streets of Chinatown with her. She had bells on her shoes so that even if she dared to take a step away from Leon, he would know by the absence of ringing bells. Many years later Leon and the Leong family went into business, and Ona fell in love with Osvaldo Leong, the son of Leon's business partner. After the business went under, Leon said Ona could not see Osvaldo again. Shortly there after, she went to see Osvaldo and Leon locked her out of the house. At that point, Ona began taking steps away from Leon, without a safety net of

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