Looking At Columbine Essay Research Paper Unfortunately free essay sample

Looking At Columbine Essay, Research Paper Unfortunately, we are all excessively familiar with the slaughter that took topographic point in Littleton, Colorado on April 20th, 1999. That was the twenty-four hours that two teenage male childs, armed with multiple pieces and pipe bombs, took on Columbine High School. By the terminal of the twenty-four hours, 13 people the two slayers included were dead, and 23 others injured. Calamities like these have seemed to go more frequent this past decennary, yet every clip it happens, the state once more finds itself inquiring Why? . Fingers are pointed in every way ; some blame a deficiency of gun control, some blame the media, some blame popular music creative persons, and some blasted violent picture games. Obviously, there is no individual cause of this job, and all of the finger indicating at different corporations, organisations, and instrumentalists is clearly making us no good. It is all excessively easy for everyone to merely put the incrimination on person else, and that s what we have been making for excessively long. We will write a custom essay sample on Looking At Columbine Essay Research Paper Unfortunately or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Possibly it is clip for America to take a good long expression at itself, and hunt for the grounds why our teens see killing as an option. One of the essays in Exploring Language suggests that it is non so much a job with teens as it is with adolescent male childs. One factor that is all excessively frequently forgotten is that the slayers are about ever males. It seems extremely improbable that this could be the consequence of some eccentric happenstance. This leads one to inquire why America s teenage boys feel the demand to kill. Jackson Katz and Sut Jhally, writers of Missing the Mark suggest that the job stems from our cultural position of maleness: [ The cultural environment ] helps to determine the maleness individualities of immature male childs in ways that equate strength in males with power and the ability to transfuse fear fright in both males every bit good as females. ( 253 ) One would believe that by the 20th century, America would hold moved past such stereotyped male chauvinist ideals, but we aren t. How frequently are weak, or powerless males glorified? In how many films does the supporter merely duck for screen or cower in the corner when gunshot interruptions free? Never. The hero ever whips out his arm and returns fire until the scoundrel is imploring for clemency. It is reasonably evident that our society respects the strong and the powerful work forces. Could it be values like these that lead to calamities such as the one in Littleton? It is values such as these that could be a stronger influence than we suspect, perchance doing unjust unfavorable judgment to fall upon those who do non suit this cultural ideal. Another valuable point to be made is that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the slayers at Columbine, are non evil people. These teens were invariably ostracized merely because they chose to dress otherwise. Gossip was ever winging about, proposing that Harris and Klebold were gay ; such rumours are frequently intended and taken as a direct abuse on one s maleness. In Lessons of Littleton, Newsweek reader, Nancy Mace asks, How much [ ] maltreatment does it take before an unstable individual explodes? ( 262 ) The onslaught on the school is by no agencies justifiable, but it was non without deep-rooted motive. Despite the interior convulsion these adolescent male childs were doubtless sing, the inquiry of why these intelligent, suburban kids chose such violent agencies of look remains unreciprocated. Mike Males s essay, Stop Blaming Kids and TV absolutely illustrates how mislead we are to believe that the beginning of the job lies in the media. In his essay, he uses many surprising statistics that absolutely show merely how misinformed we are: Nipponese and European childs behold media merely as diagrammatically barbarous as that which appears on American screens, but seventeen-year-olds in those states commit slaying at rates lower than those of American seventy-year olds. ( 258 ) That piece of grounds entirely makes it really clear that this is non a job with the media, but a job with America. So what has happened to America s ethical motives? It seems that from twenty-four hours one, kids are still told what is right and incorrect. But it seems that someplace between early childhood and adolescence, they sometimes forget those basic lessons that they were taught so long ago. Males theorizes that this is because contrary to popular belief, teens are non rebellious and they learn by illustration. Take a expression at the facts: Suicide and slaying rates among white adolescents resemble those of white grownups, and self-destruction and slaying rates among black teens track those of black grownups. ( 260 ) I suppose that the decision to be drawn from all of this is that it is non the media that is perverting America s teens, but the grownups that are rearing these teens. Kids learn best by illustration, so if America s parents want to see alteration in their teens, they will hold to larn to alter themselves foremost. So in the terminal, it truly is non a job with the media that is doing these teens to kill. It s a much deeper rooted job that has to make with the values that are mutely taught to the young person of our state. America s image of ideal work forces combined with the barbarous political relations of high school and the hapless illustrations set by the grownups is without a uncertainty a lifelessly formula for catastrophe. But how can calamities like the one at Columbine be prevented? Surely non by the despairing hunt for whipping boies that is go oning today. America s parents need to get down taking duty for their actions and learn their kids values through presentation. We need to acquire off from the pathetic masculine ideals our state has. We need to do more of an attempt to halt the deliberate elitism that exists in our schools. The inquiry we now have to face is How? , and unluckily, there are no easy replies.